


Gravity Falls in One Direction

by ot5hugs



Category: Gravity Falls, One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Demonic Possession, Demons, Gen, Gravity Falls - Freeform, Gravity Falls Spoilers, Non-Graphic Violence, OT5 Friendship, Supernatural Elements, Swearing, not graphic though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-15
Updated: 2016-03-15
Packaged: 2018-05-25 23:51:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 52,721
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6215119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ot5hugs/pseuds/ot5hugs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Liam nodded, hooking his pinky with Harry’s and trying not to think about what they were leaving behind. He took a small comfort in the fact that the other boys would be safe; they’d have each other once this was over. They’d probably be pissed at Liam and Harry for a while, but Liam hoped that they’d understand. They had to do this.<br/></p><p>Nodding at each other, Harry and Liam loaded up their weapons and left their hiding space. In the silence of the manor, there was an urge to turn back and let their guard down- demons would never be so quiet. But these were the smart ones. They were the ones that would win, even if just for a moment.<br/></p><p>“No one gets left behind,” Liam muttered as they crept towards the second library.<br/></p><p>Harry pulled back from checking around the corner and looked at Liam. “No one’s getting left.”<br/></p><p>He nodded; Harry was right. And if he were around to say it later, Liam would use those words to argue with Louis. They weren’t getting left behind- they were choosing to stay.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Big thanks to my sister [Mandy](http://www.thedoctoramanda.tumblr.com) for reading and helping me edit this. I love you and couldn't have done it without you. And a massive thanks to [sleepymouses](http://www.sleepymouses.tumblr.com) for her AMAZING art that you can find below and here. You can also find her on ao3 [here](http://archiveofourown.org/users/geewhizmo).
> 
> Also! There are spoilers for Gravity Falls in this fic, so if you haven't finished it or you want to watch it but haven't, read at your own risk. And you don't have to know anything about Gravity Falls to read this; I tried my best to make everything clear.

****

When Ms. Durland asked her kindergarten class what they wanted to be when they grew up, Liam and Harry had no idea the impact this question would have on them. Liam certainly never expected the loud, dimpled, knock-knock joke telling kid who confidently answered “a mermaid” would be his best friend. And five-year-old Harry couldn’t fathom spending a majority of the next sixteen years of his life with the kid who frowned at him and said that mermaids weren’t real. But one was stubborn and the other convinced, so “nu-uh’s” and “yeah-huh’s” turned into a friendship that would see much more than the merpeople they met two years later at Lake Gravity Falls.

The pair didn’t really realize how much had changed until they saved that kid from their middle school at Greasy’s Diner. It was late on a school night, but Harry had a suspicion about some possible vampires outside his house. The boys snuck out and followed the bloodsucking group before losing them somewhere near the diner, which was unfortunate for Harry as those vampires still hang around his house at night. It was lucky for Louis Tomlinson, however, who introduced himself pretty calmly for someone who had just been viciously attacked by and saved from a were-waffle.

Yeah, Gravity Falls was weird.

The trio made a pact to never speak about what had happened or to each other again, breaking it just a few months later when they were invited to their unknown mutual friend Zayn’s surprise birthday party. Everything had been going fairly normal until Zayn, Liam, and Harry’s karaoke act resulted in three heads exploding. Turns out that no matter how good today’s zombies are at blending in, they’re still no match for that classic three part harmony.

Niall was a happy coincidence. The new kid at Gravity Falls High and Gravity Falls in general, his steady, rock-like presence seemed to complete the group. His shining supernatural moment didn’t come until he remembered an off-hand comment made months before about how to save yourself from the Multi-bear. From that day on, he was the stats and history man, and, in a surprising turn of events, the Multi-bear’s best friend.

Looking back now, none of the boys ever thought they’d be here. No, not in the, “I never thought I’d find four friends that I consider brothers who also accompany me in documenting all the weird shit in Gravity Falls” way. It was more like, “I never thought I’d be running for my life AGAIN - why can’t something good be chasing me for once?”

If it had been anyone else’s birthday, none of them would be here right now. But it was Louis’ pre-birthday birthday celebration, so of course they were running for their lives down the hill that led to the abandoned Northwest Manor. Even Liam and Harry, with all of their childhood “expertise”, had never seen this many ghosts or poltergeists in one place. Sure, there was that one time they broke into the Dusk-2-Dawn to hide from a werewolf and accidentally ended up crashing a ghost filled anniversary party, but that was nothing compared to this. Also, _this_ time, every last entity wanted them dead.

“I told you this was a bad idea!” Liam yelled over the roar of ghosts and the cold wind speeding past them.

“You always say that about everything I wanna do!”

“Not true!”

“Kinda is, Liam.” Harry’s deep voice came through, agreeing with Louis while also letting them know that he was still with them.

“Not the time, lads!” Zayn suddenly appeared between Louis and Liam, nearly tripping on a rock when he glanced back to check on Niall.

“Gotta get to the bunker!”

“The bunker?? Niall, you hate-”

“I like living, Lou! Bunker’s our best shot!”

“Fine! Harry, sharp left past the boulder!”

Harry’s bun bounced in agreement, his long legs carrying him farther faster. It should’ve been Louis leading the way, as he knew pretty much every part of the town like the words to his favorite song, but while he was fast, he was also short, leaving him to yell directions to whoever was ahead. No one ever brought it up, though; you could only hear about Louis being 5’9 so many times. The silence between them was interrupted by a low, distorted wail echoing in the night. It suddenly didn’t matter who was ahead or who was shorter (or just short). Hell, it didn’t even matter that they were being chased by things that were previously just nightmares. 

Nothing else matters when you hear a banshee cry.

Niall bolted. Adrenaline pumping, he grabbed for Zayn and Louis as he passed them. Louis managed to catch Liam’s wrist, linking the three of them in a frantic chain until they caught up with Harry, who had just narrowly avoided getting caught on a branch. The scream of a banshee signified that someone was going to die, and although it had never happened before, Niall believed in the Irish folklore more than any of the creatures he had met in the past nine years.

Harry skidded to a stop at the base of one of the larger trees and turned back to face the others. “Liam!”

“Boost me up!”

Harry and Zayn complied, stepping back to nervously watch Liam ascend a series of synthetic branches to get the the switch.

“Any day now, Payno.” The quiver in Louis’ voice betrayed the impatience he was trying to convey.

“We gotta hold them off.” Niall said as he backed himself up to the tree.

“The bag’s back at the manor.”

“Fuck! Okay well, someone’s gotta have their Ecto-blaster with them, right?”

None of them responded to Louis’ question, Niall’s breathing getting heavier as the sound of screeching got closer.

“Lads!”

“They’re with Sophia,” Harry choked out; he could see the faint glow now.

“Pocket sage?”

“In the bag.”

“Then why the fuck do we call it pocket sage?” Zayn asked.

“Liam…”

“Nearly there!”

The four boys were now pressed against each other, their hearts racing as the first ghost appeared. The rest weren’t far behind, all of them screaming at once. It was impossible for any of the boys to make out what they were saying, but it seemed to be something along the lines of “kill them”.

“Liam!” Harry’s voice became unusually animated as he grabbed on to Louis and Zayn.

“Got it!”

The sound of a cold hand on a metal lever was followed by a slow creak as the entire tree began to descend into the ground. Liam jumped down from the branch before the steps had a chance to appear, stumbling as he landed. The instant the tree opened its door, the five rushed in, slammed the metal door behind them, and made a beeline through the bomb shelter and into the security room. Harry and Niall quickly pressed the panels in the correct order, thankful that Liam had suggested going all out with the protections and painting anti-ghost symbols when they hired Sophia and Eleanor to remodel the room. As the last panel glowed, a collective sigh of relief filled the room.

“A few more seconds and we’d have been goners.” Liam mumbled as he slid down the wall.

“Right,” Louis nodded and immediately began pacing. “Best thank the girls for fixing up the tree. We wouldn’t have made it with the old speed.”

No one spoke for a few moments, deep breathing slowly returning to normal.

“I can hear them. They’re trying to take down the door.”

Zayn looked up at Harry who was staring at the tunnel they had just come out of. Niall was a couple of feet to his left, chewing on the skin on the side of his nail. “Let’s get out of here, yeah? Like, we can go in the lab.”

The others, minus Niall, followed his gaze and nodded before five of them filed through the surveillance room and went through the contamination chamber in groups. Once in the lab, they settled (with their backs to the cryogenically frozen shapeshifter of course) and seemed to be trying to decide if they should ask Niall if he was okay.

“Nialler?” Liam’s voice broke through the silence.

“It’s all good, mate.” Louis slung his arm around the blond’s shoulders. “We outran them by a mile.”

“More like a foot,” Zayn mumbled.

“In any case, we’re safe, and we’re together.” Harry said.

Niall didn’t look at all comforted by their words, his leg bouncing up and down in shakey, rhythmic patterns.

“What’s wrong, bro?”

“What’s wrong?” Niall snapped. “That was a fucking banshee we heard back there. Haven’t you ever heard of them?”

Harry and Liam looked at each other before the former spoke. “They’re in one of the journals. It was pretty vague, though; just said that they were screaming ladies or something.”

“Yeah,” Liam agreed. “Nothing about getting rid of them or dangerous stuff.”

“That’s cuz they’re not dangerous. And they’re not just screamin’ ladies either. To Stanford, yeah, but they’re an Irish thing, and their screams warn of imminent death.”

“Well, that could mean anyone. Not one of us.” Zayn reasoned.

“In Irish folklore, some of them are attached to families. The banshee’s job is basically to let the family know that a member will die no matter how far away they are.”

“Just one? Or like one for each of us? And what- what counts as family? Blood or…”

Louis brow furrowed at Harry’s unfinished thought. He looked about ready to punch every banshee in the world for even the suggestion that they would bring harm to his boys. “Listen, we can’t even be sure what we heard was a banshee.”

Zayn crossed his arms. “Dunno, Lou. I think the whole screaming lady bit was a tip off.”

“Well, yeah, but Pacifica screams all the time.”

“Pacifica?”

Liam nodded. “You know, the girl from the manor?”

Everyone but Harry shook their heads.

“Liam and I met her ages ago. She was screaming up and down the bloody place about how there were too many ghosts around. Came over and introduced herself as Pacifica the Banshee before she kept screaming.” Harry explained.

“Yeah, and no one’s died yet.”

“Hang on,” Niall stood up, causing Louis’ arm to slide off. “Pacifica? As in Pacifica Northwest?”

Harry and Liam shrugged. “Maybe.”

“Does it matter?”

“Of course it matters, Louis.”

“If the banshee is Pacifica, then she’s not a banshee at all.” Zayn said. “She died of natural causes, and banshees are typically women who are murdered or die in childbirth.”

The corner of Niall’s mouth turned up slightly; it was always nice to know his history ramblings were actually being listened to.

“Why would she say she’s a banshee if she’s not?” Harry asked.

“She’s a Northwest.” Niall said simply. “Still thinks she’s better than everyone else despite her family’s embarrassments and going bankrupt all those years ago.”

“Bit hard to be better when you’re a ghost surrounded by other ghosts,” Liam mused.

“Exactly. What better way to stick out than to tell two kids you’re a banshee?”

“So… what we heard wasn’t a banshee, right?” Louis stood up and clapped a hand on Niall’s shoulder. “See, Niall? Nothing to worry about.”

“Okay, well maybe she’s not a banshee, but what about the thousands of ghosts chasing us?”

“Typical night,” he shrugged.

Liam rolled his eyes. “That was not typical. Typically, ghosts are annoyed at us or they like to play with Harry’s hair or poke at Zayn’s tattoos. You just had to go explore the White Room didn’t you?”

“Of course I did, Liam.” Louis responded hotly. “We have to search the whole place if we’re gonna figure out what’s going on.”

“We didn’t find anything.” Harry said. “Are we even sure it was the right place to look?”

“Course I’m sure.” Zayn sat up slightly. “It was a simple A1Z26 cipher.”

Louis pulled out his wallet and took a long strip of paper from inside. On it was a series of numbers and, in different handwriting just below, words corresponding to the separate groups.

**12-15-15-11 / 20-15 / 20-8-5 / 19-5-20-20-9-14-7 / 19-21-14 / 1-14-4 / 21-16**

Look to the setting sun and up

“No, I mean, I’m sure you did it right. It’s just, like, did we interpret it right?”

“The sun sets in the West. Up is North. Northwest,” Zayn concluded.

“We still didn’t find anything,” Niall said.

“Well, we’re not even sure what we’re looking for.”

“Exactly.” Liam said as he turned to face Louis. “We went up there blind. Clue or no clue, we should’ve planned better.”

“And how do you expect us to do that? One day shit starts getting weird in Portland, Harry gets his message the very same day, mine comes in a few days later, and you expect us to be calm and plan our every move?”

“I never said that! I’m just saying that following these clues may not have been smart. What if it was a trap?”

“Looks like it was,” Zayn said.

“Oh, come on, man.” Louis turned to his best friend as he crossed his arms. “You were the one that figured it out in the first place.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean Liam’s wrong.”

“We’d have gone to the manor anyway, right?” Niall physically stepped in between them in an attempt to mediate. “So it really doesn’t matter.”

“We should’ve at least talked to Liz.”

“Or Rosa,” Harry added.

“Pines and Ramirez?” Louis scoffed. “Just because they’re related doesn’t mean they know anything.”

“It wouldn’t have hurt to try. They’re the closest thing we’ve got really.”

Liam was quiet for a moment, staring at the ground when he finally spoke. “Lads, what if this is all a prank?”

“A prank?” Niall frowned. “From who?”

Liam shrugged.

“Not a very funny prank.” Harry said as he took out a strip of paper similar to Louis’. “We nearly died.”

“It doesn’t explain all the stuff that’s been happening at school, though.” Louis drummed his fingers against his side as he thought. “It’s no coincidence that we start seeing creatures far away from Gravity Falls and Harry gets his cipher the same day.”

“Gravity Falls can’t be the only place with weird creatures.” Liam suggested. “It’s just got the most, yeah?”

“But a Leprecorn, Liam?” Zayn raised an eyebrow. “The only reported sightings are here. Louis’ right.”

“Harry’s cipher spells it out pretty clearly.”

Liam took the paper from Harry and frowned down at the Atbash Cipher.

**TIZERGB UZOOH RH LMOB GSV YVTRMMRMT**

Gravity Falls is only the beginning

“Are we sure it’s the same person?”

Harry nodded. “Zayn and Eleanor compared the handwriting and the paper. Same on both counts; you can even line up the rips.”

“It’s not a joke, Payno.” Louis voice was quieter than usual. “Something’s happening.”

Liam sighed and handed Harry back his clue. “Alright. Then I guess our first order of business is to find out who sent us these two ciphers.”

“And punch ‘em for sending us into Death Manor.” Niall said as he shoved his hands in his pockets.

“Right behind you, mate.” Louis grinned before turning to the others, missing Niall’s nervous glance around the room.

“We should start at the shack,” Harry suggested. “Best to start from the beginning.”

They all nodded; the great-great-grandchildren of Mabel and Soos may not be as involved with the mysteries of the town as their ancestors were, but they still owned the shack where it all happened. If the boys were to find any clues, this was their best bet— the home of the two authors of the five journals they had read cover to cover. 

Niall hoped they’d figure it out soon. He was still unsure about the banshee business; it was likely that this hadn’t been the work of an aggressively spoiled descendant of the false town founder since someone clearly wanted them dead. But more than that, he wanted things to go back to normal as quickly as possible. He loved his boys and this town, and this newest mystery was putting them both in danger. Niall followed the boys out of the bunker and into the frosty December night, nervously flipping his secret cipher in his pocket in the hopes of forgetting the hollowed scream still ringing in his ears.

**> >>>>**

The Mystery Shack was something of a novelty in Gravity Falls. When it was owned and operated by Stanley “Stan” Pines from 1982 to 2012, it specialized in being a tourist trap, full of exceptionally fake creatures such as the Thigh-clops and the still-present Sascrotch. Even after the Society of the Blind Eye was destroyed and the town’s people were able to remember all the real creatures they had come in contact with, the shack thrived until it was shut down following the interdimensional return of the proprietor’s twin, Stanford “Ford” Pines’. The business didn’t stay closed for long, though, reopening when Soos took ownership after the events of Weirdmageddon, a period of time kept secret by the town that the boys had only ever heard of though vague whispers. Today, it was run by Soos and Mabel’s great-great-granddaughters, Rosa Ramirez and Liz Pines, respectively, who had maintained much of its old, hoaky charm while simultaneously reducing some of Stan’s rather unfavorable and highly illegal business practices.

It was there that the creature hunting had really begun for Liam and Harry. They had taken summer jobs at the shack and were taking inventory when they stumbled upon the journals. Liz, familiar with Dipper and Mabel’s story but uninterested in the true supernatural, allowed the boys to keep the journals as long as they didn’t leave Gravity Falls. So, when all the boys got older, monster hunting was limited to during breaks from school. The rest of the year was spent at the University of Portland, where nothing unusual happened and the five boys spent their time filling up Liam and Harry’s journals with all the new creatures and updating the old ones.

Until now.

Zayn, Liam, Niall, Louis, and Harry went to the Mystery Shack just before it opened the next morning, hoping to have a word with either Liz or Rosa, before the first tour started. Journals and ciphers tucked safely in their bags, Harry used his key to let them in. They weren’t exactly sure what their plan of attack was, but they figured being unprepared here was safer than at the manor.

“Oi, Liz! You here?” Louis rang the bell on the checkout counter a few times in case she was upstairs.

“You think she’s got any food?” Harry mumbled as he flipped through the rack of postcards.

“Why didn’t you just eat at Greasy’s?”

“Seriously, Niall? Pretty sure they’re still serving food from fifty years ago. No offense, Louis.” Harry added.

“None taken. Place is disgusting… Oi oi, Liz! Where are you?”

“Quit shoutin’,” Zayn grumbled as he peeked around the corner.

“Well, no one else is doing anything.”

“Maybe they’re not here,” Niall shrugged.

“This close to opening?” Liam asked skeptically. “No, someone’s gotta be here.”

“ELIZABETH MABEL PINES!”

“Louis!”

The sound of boots interrupted whatever scolding Louis was about to receive. They all turned to the Employees Only door to see Rosa enter with a scowl. “You better listen to your boy, Louis.”

Rosa Ramirez was a tall, heavy twenty-seven year old woman with wavy brown hair and brown eyes that exuded the kindness her family, namely Soos and Melody, was known for. But she was also stern and not afraid to put anyone in their place, and she would definitely go above and beyond to protect her loved ones; that was just one of the many reasons why the boys looked up to her.

“Rosa!” Harry hugged her. “Have you got a minute to talk?”

“Always got a minute for you boys. We’ll be opening soon, though, so I might have to hand you off to Liz when she gets down here.”

“Fair enough.” Liam pulled his journal from his backpack and opened it to the page on which they had decided to keep the ciphers. “What do you make of these?”

The shack was quiet for a moment as Rosa read the words, her lips pursed in thought. “I didn’t write them if that’s what you’re wondering. Seems like you’ve got them all figured out.”

“Any idea who wrote them?” Zayn asked.

She shook her head. “I don’t recognize the handwriting. You’d probably be better off asking Liz.”

Disappointed, Harry pouted. “Right, well, can you tell us anything about Northwest Manor?”

“Haven’t you explored it a few dozen times?”

Louis nodded. “But we’re looking for something a little different this time. Any legends you can think of?”

“Besides the Lumberjack’s Curse? Sorry, no. I never really heard about Abuelo hanging out with Pacifica; in fact, I think the only real thing they had was when they decided to mass produce W-necks.”

Harry wrinkled his nose at the old fashion statement. “Sometimes my dad wears them.”

“I really didn’t wanna know that.” Liam groaned as he closed the book.

He shrugged and tucked his hands in his pockets.

“D’you know of anyone else that might know anything?” Niall asked. “Besides Liz, of course.”

“I dunno. The manor has been abandoned for so long that the only people who know anything solid are dead.” She reached over the counter and pulled out the Mystery Shack fez along with a black blazer. “Sorry I can’t help you much, but you should definitely talk to Liz if she’s got the time. I’ve gotta go greet the first tour.”

“Alright, thanks anyway.” Zayn said as she passed them to get to the door.

Just before Rosa exited the shack, she turned around to address the quintet. “Oh, also, I think you might be looking for two people instead of one.”

The bell on the top of the door chimed as it closed behind her, its cheeriness betraying the mysterious nature of her final call. The boys stared at it, brows furrowed and faces scrunched in confusion.

“Two people?” Zayn echoed. “But Eleanor and I checked at least five times. The handwriting is identical.”

“Maybe- maybe one person wrote them but two people thought them up?” Harry suggested.

“So we’re looking for two authors,” Niall groaned.

“Hang on, lads.” Louis stood up straight and took the book from Liam. “What makes her so sure it’s two? She doesn’t even have a clue as to who wrote them.”

Liam shrugged. “Maybe Liz’ll know.”

“Yeah, and maybe she’ll know why a couple of people are giving us cryptic messages instead of doing something themselves.”

Niall gave a nervous chuckle when Louis finished speaking. “Maybe we’ve got to, like, save ‘em or something.”

Harry frowned. “Saving people? I thought this was just about the creatures invading Portland.”

“Right, right,” the blond refrained from chewing on his nails, opting to shove his hands in the pockets of his jacket. “Just thinkin’ out loud.”

Zayn watched Niall for a beat longer than the rest before turning around at the sound of another pair of boots.

“Morning, kids,” Liz entered the room, a mug of coffee in one hand and a green sweater with a large black question mark on the front in the other.

“We’re all older than you. Even Harry,” Zayn commented.

The twenty-one year old shrugged and sat on the stool behind the checkout counter before putting down her mug and pulling the sweater on over her shirt. She was an odd character, perpetually dressing as if she had time traveled to a world of sweatbands and big hair and was trying to fit in. With all the pictures Liam and Harry had seen of Mabel in her 1980s clothing, it wasn’t much of a surprise, but it was marginally better since it wasn’t all classic neon. Her magenta lipstick matched her nails, the fourth digits sporting a bright blue Star of David.

“You closing up for the day?” Harry asked, gesturing to her hands.

“Thinking about it. Hanukkah, Christmas Eve, this one’s birthday,” she nodded at Louis. “Holidays all around. You celebrating this year?”

“If I’m not being chased by monsters, yeah. Going to dad’s for this holiday while my mum’s off visiting the grandparents.”

“Ah yeah, those monster’s will get ya.” She sipped her coffee. “So what were you all yelling about earlier?”

“Got some questions for you.” Louis plopped the journal in front of her and pointed at the ciphers.

“Ooh, fun. Good thing you’ve already solved them or else I’d have to sing the alphabet song and count on my fingers.”

Zayn smiled faintly. “Anything stick out to you?”

Niall and Liam slightly leaned forward as Liz hummed. She seemed to be remembering something and suddenly chuckled.

“Can’t say I know anything, but it looks like I wrote this with my left hand while on painkillers.”

“You do that often?” Niall asked.

Liz merely smiled and took another sip.

“You’re weird.”

“Speaking of weird.” She stood up and walked across the room, stopping just past the rack of t-shirts. “Look what I found in the old bedroom the other day.”

Liz pulled back a curtain to reveal a skeleton wearing a pineapple print shirt and a pair of pink sunglasses with palm trees sticking up at the corners. It looked old and as if it had not seen daylight in quite some time, but a bit of cleaning and a washed shirt would make it look good as new.

“I don’t get it.” Liam said, slightly cocking his head to the side. “That’s just a skeleton.”

“Oh, sweet lima bean, it’s much more than an old skeleton. This is a Mystery Shack original! Ancient Uncle Stan put this together in a few seconds to gain mystery and interest in what he was trying to sell. Without it, the shack we know and love may not exist.”

Louis laughed. “Looks like Harry in about eighty years.”

“Hey,” he pouted, but seemed to be eyeing the shirt with interest, hand unconsciously fidgeting with his collar in what seemed to be an attempt to estimate whether or not the relic would fit without any sort of adjustments.

“It’s probably the least horrible thing in this place.” Zayn said as he looked around, apparently unconcerned with the mild banter between the other boys.

“I like the Candy-corn.” Niall turned to face a display of various kinds of corn that vaguely resembled Mabel’s old friend Candy Chiu.

“Think you’re forgetting about the Sascrotch and Six-packalope.” Liam said.

Harry prompted Liam for a fist bump, giggling at the puns.

“Maybe you’ll change your tune when you see this,” Liz pulled out a box from behind the skeleton and opened it for the boys to see what was inside.

“No way!” Louis exclaimed.

“Sick!”

Zayn proudly looked down at a creature he had drawn and created about a year ago, now in 3D. It didn’t have a name, but it stood out from all the other things he and Louis had made up over the years. The creature had an Anubis like head with a sleek metal wolf body. The limbs were larger than a wolf’s, though, its retractable claws impossibly long and deadly. It also had laser eyes and a scorpion’s tail that shot poison stingers; that was Louis’ contribution.

“You inspired me.” Liz said.

Zayn beamed, unaware that she wasn’t the only one inspired by his art.

“This is amazing.” Liam moved to examine the display but stopped short when he caught sight of his journal in Louis’ hand. “Damn, nearly forgot about the clues for a second.”

It took the other boys a moment to catch up, their attention still mostly on Zayn’s creature.

“Lads,” Liam attempted to get their attention. “The ciphers? And the wonderful stroll we had at the manor last night? Anything ringing a bell?”

Liz turned to face him. “You guys went back to the manor again?”

Harry took a step away from the box and nodded. “One of the clues told us to.”

“Why?”

“Dunno.” Niall said. “Figured we were supposed to find something there. D’you know anything?”

She pulled her cheek between her molars as Louis and Zayn refocused their attention on the situation. “Maybe. That’s where GrandMabel and Great-Grunkle Dipper were the night before the Gravity Fails Incident of 2012.”

Harry chuckled, “Gravity Fails…”

Louis rolled his eyes. “And that was the night Ford came out of the portal, right?”

Niall and Liz nodded simultaneously before the former spoke. “The night before was the Northwest’s annual party. McGucket tried to warn the twins about the portal there.”

“But it’s been over a hundred years since that summer,” Liam countered. “What could still be of use in the manor now?”

“Not sure,” Liz said as she took the journal to examine the clues again. “You’re more than welcome to look around the shack if you need to, though.”

“Better than the nothing we’ve got now.”

They nodded in agreement with Zayn before noticing a slight change in Liz’s face.

“Something wrong?”

“It’s just- nah, it’s nothing. Trick of the mind is all.” She shook her head as if to clear it. “Anyway, like I said, the shack is yours. There’s still a lot of stuff from GrandMabel and Great-Grunkle Dipper in the attic if you’re interested.”

“Right, well, I suppose we’ll stick around for a bit.” Louis shared a suspicious glance with Liam as Liz headed back to the counter to get her mug.

“Cool, I’ll see you kids around. Can’t leave Rosa alone the whole day, can I?” She waved over her shoulder as she headed out the door. “Later!”

The boys waited until the sound of her boots faded away before heading out of the shack’s store and into the main house. Without a word, they went up to the attic and closed the door behind them, situating themselves among the boxes and old furniture. The room was small with the five of them added in the mix, but they made it work by shifting things until there was at least a space for Niall to breathe and move freely. The December sun streaming in through the triangular window wasn’t enough to light up the whole room, prompting Harry to search for some sort of light while the others began an impromptu meeting.

“She’s definitely hiding something.” Louis started.

“Agreed.” Zayn crossed his arms as he looked out the window. “But I’m not sure if we’ll be able to get it out of her.”

“Wait, lads. Maybe she was telling the truth.” Niall suggested. “Or, like, maybe she didn’t wanna trouble us with something small.”

“Nothing’s small anymore, Niall.” Liam said from his spot on top of a desk. “We were nearly killed last night. We can’t afford any sort of secrets.”

“Well, I mean, if it’s her thing then we shouldn’t-”

“What is up with you lately?” Harry’s muffled voice came from behind a stack of boxes, interrupting his friend. “Aha!”

A click sounded in the room, followed by a disappointing nothing.

“Dammit. Light bulb’s busted.”

“Just forget about it.”

“Forget about what? The lightbulb or how weird you’ve been acting?” Zayn asked.

Niall shifted uncomfortably, the cipher in his pocket weighing him down like a cement block. “Both. Haven’t been actin’ weird at all.”

“Oh, come off it, Niall. Just tell us what’s going on.”

Niall refused to meet Louis’ eyes as he chewed on his lower lip.

“Mate, we’ve got your back. You know that, right?”

Liam nodded in agreement with Harry’s voice, louder now that the stacks of seemingly useless junk were no longer blocking the sound. “I mean, yeah, this business is weird, but we’ll be okay. We always are.”

“It’s different now.”

“Well, yeah.” Louis said. “But not all that much. I mean, just last week you nearly killed a nest of fairies when that gnome popped out of one of the bushes in the woods.”

“Just surprised me is all.”

“Niall,” Zayn’s tone made Niall sigh in resignation.

“Fine.” He pulled out the scrap of paper he had been holding on to for weeks. “I got a cipher, too.”

“What?”

There was a crash as Harry accidentally kicked over a box in his attempt to get back to the main space. “Sorry.”

“Nevermind that.” Liam said quickly. “What do you mean you got a cipher?”

“Take a look.” Niall handed it over to him; Zayn quickly abandoned his place next to Louis to hover behind Liam. “It’s an A1Z26 cipher. I did it on me own during class.”

“You got this when we were at school?”

Niall nodded at Harry. “Found it stuck inside my headphone case at the radio station.”

“You did it right,” Zayn mumbled, “but I wish you hadn’t.”

“What’s it say?” Louis asked impatiently.

Liam remained quiet as Harry plucked the paper from his fingers and took it to Louis, the dusty light that reached the floor just bright enough for them to see it clearly.

**19-1-22-5 / 20-8-5 / 20-15-23-14 / 1-14-4 / 25-15-21-18 / 2-18-15-20-8-5-18**

Save the town and your brother

“Greg?”

“Course not Greg, Harry.” Louis muttered. “Greg’s been out of Gravity Falls for years.”

“Oh. Well, fuck.”

“You see why I didn’t wanna tell you?” Niall looked around at his friends— his brothers— and felt the same nauseating sensation he felt when he first decoded the message.

“Maybe it was a mistake,” Liam said quietly. “Nothing’s happened to us. So maybe it is Greg. Or it wasn’t meant for you.”

“Yeah,” Harry agreed. “Maybe this one was a prank. Like, maybe someone heard us talking about the ciphers and decided to play a trick.”

“It’s the same handwriting,” Zayn said.

“But there’s no one to save!”

The room went quiet after Liam’s outburst. Zayn gently placed his hand on his friend’s back in an attempt to calm him. Niall regretted showing them the cipher; things always got more intense when one of them was even remotely in danger. Last summer, Niall had been followed by a Flying Eyeball every night for a week, and despite the fact that it did nothing but watch him, the boys took it upon themselves to escort Niall home from his job at Hermanos Brothers until they could figure out how to get rid of it. And he didn’t think any of them would ever forget the time they ran into the Jersey Devil and nearly lost Louis; they didn’t leave each other’s sides for weeks after that. As much as he hadn’t wanted to let them know, though, Niall felt better now that he wasn’t keeping it to himself.

“Is that why you were so afraid of the banshee?” Louis asked, breaking the silence.

Niall shrugged. “That and the general ‘someone’s gonna die’ thing.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about it.” Harry said confidently. “There’s nothing we’ve seen that we can’t handle.”

The others nodded and looked to Niall with fond smiles. Harry was right, of course. Unfortunately for them, though, it was what they hadn’t yet seen that would be coming for them soon.

**> >>>>**

“Well, I’m an idiot.”

“Glad you’ve finally figured that out. Maybe you’re not as much of an idiot as you think.”

Zayn’s glare was missed by Eleanor, who hadn’t looked up from her files since she pulled them out upon Liam’s request. Papers were spread out all around her, some talking about the Northwest family history and others with newspaper articles attached to them about the Mystery Twins’ adventures. Having two friends that worked at the Gravity Falls Museum was helpful in the initial quest to discover creatures and secrets of the town, and with all that was happening now, Zayn and Eleanor were crucial to any sort of progress.

“What’d you find?”

“Rosa told us we were looking for two people, and I couldn’t see how she knew until I really looked at this stuff. Like, Harry’s cipher is completely different from Louis’.”

Eleanor scribbled something on a spare sheet of paper before pulling out the blueprints for the Northwest Manor. “Cuz it’s an Atbash?”

“Well, yeah, but also it’s simple.”

“As in plain or stupid?”

“Plain mostly.” Zayn looked at the messages side-by-side. “For Louis’ you have to work to figure out what it means while Harry’s is straightforward.”

“Two different minds,” she concluded. “And Niall’s?”

“His looks like it was written by the same person who did Harry’s. Only question is- why are two people thinking and only one writing?”

“You still don’t know who they are either, so it’s technically not the only question.”

Zayn nodded. “I just wish we could find what we needed at the manor. Like, I think if we find it, we can tie all these clues together.”

Eleanor sighed and leaned back in her chair, finally looking away from the work in front of her. “I’ve pulled every bit of information I can find about the family and the manor. There’s the standard stuff about the Northwest ancestors being horrible and frauds and then stuff kinda changes after summer 2012 when Pacifica starts to grow up. As far as the manor goes, there are a few accounts of a secret room that hid all the horrible things they did and the lies, but nothing else after it was abandoned in the wake of the bankruptcy.”

“Then what the hell are we looking for?”

“Something obvious, I suppose. Try searching it in the morning instead of midnight this time.”

“One of the first sound ideas I’ve heard lately,” Liam said as he entered the room. “Care to join us?”

“Love to, but Sophia and I are going Christmas shopping. She should be done fixing up all of your equipment, so I suggest you at least pick up your ecto-blasters before going back up the hill.”

Liam nodded. “Anything, Zayn?”

“Figured out the whole two authors thing, but I can’t get much else without that manor clue.”

“Then I suppose we’ll just have to go back. Hopefully the others are having more luck than we are.”

Back at the shack, the muffled background noise of the tours mixed with the rustling, jingling, and scraping sounds of the remaining three boys rummaging through the boxes in the attic. While they had managed to find several things of interest during their search, none of their recent treasures could be of any help. Niall was busy trying to put a box of Stan’s old documents in sequential order to see if any new information could be found. Louis, meanwhile, zipped up his backpack after having helped himself to several packs of stickers to put on Liam, an old joke book for Harry, and a book titled _How To Ruin Jokes_ for himself. Harry was getting more boxes for them to go through and carefully sorting the contents into piles.

“What exactly are we looking for?”

Harry shrugged as he squinted at an old sock puppet and tossed it in the ‘weird stuff’ pile, where it joined items like an old, beat up copy of _Wolfman Bare Chest_ , a rom-com titled _Smooch Town_ , and a bag of stale pig treats.

“Anything about the Northwest’s.” Louis replied. “There’s gotta be something at the manor that we missed.”

“And maybe a reason why there were so many ghosts there.” Harry added.

“Someone must’ve sent them.”

“What makes you say that?”

Niall put down a yellowing paper. “Ghosts have only ever wanted us dead once, and that was when we were teenagers at the Dusk-2-Dawn. What are the chances an army of ghosts _and_ poltergeists want us dead? Not to mention the banshee.”

“Pacifica,” Harry corrected.

“Right, sure.”

“You still think it was a real banshee?”

“Why shouldn’t I? Pacifica has no reason to chase us down.”

“Maybe she was having a bad day.”

“Or maybe we’re wasting time worrying and speculating when we could be finding shit.” Louis interrupted. “We can ask her when we go back to the manor.”

“Most of these documents are just proof of tax fraud,” Niall said after a moment. “Which explains why they were hidden this deep.”

“Imagine if Stan had actually been mayor.” Harry mused.

“He’s got a rap sheet longer than you.” Louis said as he opened a pack of pens to test the ink. “Probably wouldn’t have been as great as Mayor Cutebiker.”

“What about Anton?”

“Estelle Anton? What about her?”

“Like, how does she stand up as mayor?” Harry asked as he stood up.

“She was great for a while.” Niall answered. “Then she started gettin’ a bit weird. Town got used to it, though.”

“Been the mayor my whole life and I think I’ve only seen her twice in person.” Louis said.

“Strange. Maybe she-” Harry stopped himself when he kicked something and heard it crash into the wall. “Oops.”

Niall sighed. “What’d you break this time?”

“‘S just cracked.” He picked up the object and turned it over in his hands.

“What is it?”

“A light. Hand held I suppose.” Harry tossed it to Louis. “Must’ve fallen out of the box I kicked over earlier.”

Louis pushed the switch up to turn it on. When it finally flickered to life, his face brightened. “Lads! It’s a blacklight!”

“Huh? A bl-”

Niall was interrupted as a crash filled the room. Harry scrambled over to Louis, some glitter and sequins dotting his hair. “Did you say blacklight?”

“Yeah. Sick, right?”

“More than that, Lou.” Harry took the light and dug around in his bag for a journal. “This might be the answer Liam and I have been looking for since we found these journals.”

The journal Harry placed in front of them was black and a little beat up. The cover would have been relatively plain with only a blue pine tree and the number four written on top, but someone had taken the liberty of bedazzling it. Scraps of paper stuck out from the pages, and as Harry flipped through them, illustrations not unlike the ones Zayn drew for their journals flashed before their eyes.

“Here.” Harry stopped on a page that looked incomplete; there was a title and a vague description of a Nozuchi but no tips, hints, or warnings.

“Pretty sad page.” Louis commented.

“BL required?” Niall read. “What’s with the arrow next to it?”

“We never knew. But we did think there wasn’t enough information here for how meticulous Dipper appeared to be. Look,” Harry turned on the blacklight, revealing a paragraph of information and plenty of warnings in all caps, such as **WILL EAT YOU WHOLE**.

Louis wrinkled his nose. “Lovely…”

“BL required…” Niall repeated. “Blacklight required. Blacklight required… from here on?”

“Makes sense. Most of the pages after this are just as blank as this one.”

“Maybe we’ll find something useful.”

“Maybe, but it’s gonna take some time to get through this and the fifth journal.” Harry said as he turned off the light. “Maybe you two should meet up with Liam and Zayn to search the manor. I can stay here and read, and if I find anything, I’ll call.”

“Good idea. I’ll let them know.” Louis stood up and dusted himself off.

“I’ll stay with Harry.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, it’ll make things go faster.”

Louis grabbed his bag and ruffled Niall’s hair before heading to the door. “Fine by me.”

“Be careful out there.” Harry said, briefly looking up from the book.

“Sure thing. Don’t get a paper cut!”

Once Louis was out of the shack, he sent messages to Liam and Zayn to meet him at the base of the Northwest hill. There was a thin layer of snow surrounding the shack that turned into patches as he entered the forest. Occasionally he would see prints, some belonging to deer and others a little more strange. In a place where most people would be creeped out, Louis could breathe somewhat easier, finding the surrounding weirdness strangely comforting. The hum of fairy wings along with the occasional scurry of a gnome heading back to their clearing were familiar sounds. Of course, not every mysterious sound was welcome; any flap of a large wing made him jump, especially since he was alone.

As he made his way through the forest, Louis pouted in frustration. Nothing was getting any clearer despite all of the things they had found. He couldn’t understand why someone who clearly knew what was going on was passing cryptic notes to them. Sure, they all had their fair share of experience with the supernatural, but it didn’t make them qualified to save the town or whatever they needed to do.

_Save the town and your brother._

Louis tried to shake the thought out of his head, but it hadn’t really left since Niall had revealed his secret cipher earlier in the day. The upside was that since it was addressed to Niall, he wouldn’t be the one in danger. Of course, that was only a small comfort. Any of the other boys were fair game, including Louis, and that didn’t sit well with him. Whatever they had to discover, they better find it fast— Louis refused to have to organize any rescue missions. If anything or anyone even laid a finger on his boys, there’d be hell to pay.

Of course, Niall’s cipher wasn’t the only troubling one. According to Harry’s, the creatures would spread much further than Gravity Falls. It didn’t seem like much of a problem, but with the warnings and secrecy, there was a possibility that there were unfavorable creatures threatening to take over. The anticipation made him worry for the remaining two ciphers; Liam and Zayn had yet to receive any.

The aforementioned were waiting for Louis when he got to the hill. Liam was holding an extra bag in his hand while Zayn looked busy sketching something in his notebook.

“Whatcha got there, Payno?”

“Ecto-blasters and some more sage bombs. Picked ‘em up from Soph before heading over here.”

“How’s the missus?” Louis asked as he took the bag and removed his blaster; it was about the length of his thigh and lightweight, the lack of heavy ammunition coming in handy during the fast-paced heat of battle. The blue and silver exterior complemented the golden glow of the proton core that was responsible for getting rid of the ghosts. 

“Well; she and Eleanor are off Christmas shopping, so they’ll be a ways away if we get chased down again.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem with these,” Zayn said as he waved his blaster. “Sophia said she made them wide range.”

“Nice. More ghosts in less time.” Louis soft activated his, ready in case of an attack. “Shall we?”

Liam and Zayn nodded and walked with Louis up the hill, past the iron gate, and into the manor. “Do we have a better idea of what we’re looking for this time?”

“Not a clue,” Liam said.

“Eleanor suggested it was something obvious.” Zayn said as he looked around the main room.

“How obvious?” Louis asked. “Obvious like right in our face or obvious like obviously we should have checked behind the taxidermy heads?”

“I’m not touching those.” Zayn wrinkled his nose and turned away from the Hunting Room. “They’re disgusting.”

“I think we might want to go completely obvious for this one.” Liam said just before they heard a creak from upstairs. “I’ve got a feeling it’s only gonna get harder from here.”

**> >>>>**

“Wish there were two of these things.”

“Me, too.” Harry furrowed his brow as he continued to scan the journal for important messages. “Maybe there’s another in the box this one was in.”

“Two kids, two lights.” Niall stood up from his place behind Harry and went to the overturned box in question.

“Did you know the Moose-Pig is allergic to paprika?”

“Moose-Pig?”

“Yeah; you know as mad about history as you are, I thought you’d have read all these journals by now.”

“Nah,” Niall moved aside some more papers and a bag of loser candy. “I like the surprise. Discovering it all on me own.”

“Hm… Well, that’s all for journal four. Looks like journal five is our last hope.” Harry closed the book and set it to the side before stretching.

“Not really promising, is it? Isn’t that journal barely halfway filled?”

“Yeah. You find anything?”

“Just a bunch of old stuff and a glue gun. Oh, hang on…” Niall lifted out the glue gun and smiled as he realized another blacklight was stuck to it.

“Nice. Sweep the room just in case; the twins spent a few summers here, so I imagine they would’ve trusted enough to write on the walls a bit.”

Niall nodded and began to search the walls for any messages while Harry started on the last journal. The pair remained in relative silence for a moment, the only sounds consisting of pages being turned or footsteps as Niall moved to a new strip of wall. Too soon, Harry started to get pages that were blank under both lights. Determined to find something, he quickly flipped through the remaining pages, resolve slowly fading as page after page flew by without the slightest indication of even a stray pen mark. It wasn’t until he was almost finished that he saw something he had never noticed.

The word **DEALS** was written in red ink on one of the pages. Harry had never seen it before; he and Liam having accepted the end as the end when they had first gotten the journals. Even if they had noticed, it wouldn’t have done them much good, as the rest of the page was written in invisible ink. Harry leaned in to read the short entry, eyes widening with excitement the further he moved down the page.

“Niall! Mate, I’ve got it; it’s right here.”

“Really?” Niall quickly jumped from his position on top of an old mattress, abandoning his search of the window frame to see what Harry was talking about.

_I have taken precautions should the journals ever reach the wrong hands. With nearly all of the blacklights destroyed during the Techno-Crisis of 2017, Mabel and I have the only two remaining in Gravity Falls. I can only assume this message is being read by someone we can trust. There is a sixth journal. It should only be found in an emergency, and its existence should be kept hidden from everyone. I’ve relocated some of the pages from Journals 2 & 3 in order to keep the town safe. All the money in the world couldn’t buy the location._

**ADUSUZMX TAYQ AR FTQ EGNVQOF**

“A hidden journal?” Niall looked from the hidden message to Harry’s face; he looked thrilled as the feelings of mystery from his childhood came flooding back.

“This is mad. There’s another journal…” Harry suddenly dropped the book and the light and grabbed his backpack, excitement threatening to bubble over as he continued. “This explains the missing pages in two of Ford’s journals.”

Niall stared at the three books, two incomplete, and felt his stomach do a backflip. This was it. This had to be it. If something dangerous was happening, surely the answers would be in this hidden journal.

“So where is it?”

“I think this cipher’ll lead us to it.” Harry wrote down the letters on a scrap of paper and turned off the backlight. “Problem is, I don’t know what kind of cipher it is.”

“Well, it’s not an A1Z26.”

Harry threw him a look and slightly shook his head when Niall responded with a shrug. “Right, well, let’s try an Atbash then.”

“Isn’t that a bit too simple?”

“Yeah, but it’s worth a shot.”

“Best to rule them all out I suppose.” Niall watched as Harry began his attempt at decoding the message. “‘Zwfhf… okay, yeah, that’s definitely not it.”

“Nope. And it’s obviously not Morse… Not looking forward to the remaining options.”

“Caesar?”

“Or a homemade code. We should call Zayn.”

They reached into their pockets and pulled out a set of custom earpieces used for communicating; Niall’s had the mascot of Gravity Falls High School, a blue beaver over a gold background, while Harry’s had a picture of Steve, the penguin from his favorite show _Duck-tective_. They waited for the beep that signaled that the connection to the other earpieces had been made before speaking.

“Zayn?”

“Little busy, mate.”

Harry heard the sound of an ecto-blaster closely followed by a ghost screaming.

“Run into a bit of trouble?” Niall teased.

“Very funny.” Louis’ words were followed by the click of his blaster reloading.

“Just a few ghosts; nothing we can’t handle.” Liam said. “They’re just a bit mad about last night.”

“Too many strange ghosts?”

“Yeah, they didn’t like that.”

“I’ve got a sage bomb, cover up, lads!”

Zayn spoke quickly. “What d’you need, Harry?”

“Got a cipher here and-” Harry paused as a loud bang sounded, “and I need your help with it.”

“I work best when they’re in front of me. Have you given it a shot yet?”

“Course I have. But I’m thinkin’ it’s a Caesar, and there’s probably not time for Niall and I to fumble through all twenty-six variations.”

“You’ve got some real faith if you think he can do it over the set.” Louis said.

“He’s the best.” Niall shrugged.

They heard Zayn sigh, but there was something in the tone that told them he was smiling just a little. “Alright, what d’you got?”

Harry grinned and pulled up the paper. “First three letters of the word are a-d-u.”

“Right, so, b-e-v…”

“S-u-z.”

“T-v- no that’s not working. Hang on,” the line went quiet for a moment before Zayn burst out laughing. “Did you see that?”

Liam and Louis were laughing as well. “Fucking hell, what an idiot.”

“This ghost just disintegrated itself,” Liam said through his laughter.

Harry let them have their moment for just a little bit longer before deciding to really grab their attention. “Guys, there’s another journal.”

The laughing stopped abruptly and was followed by a few beats of silence before Louis spoke. “Come again?”

“There’s a sixth journal,” Niall said, “and we need to solve this cipher to find it.”

“A secret sixth journal?” The excitement in Liam’s voice was unmistakable.

“I know!” Harry’s voice got a little higher when he responded.

“Maybe we should get back to the shack then.” Zayn suggested. “I’ll have better luck with the cipher that way.”

“Did you find anything at the manor?”

“No,” Louis replied bitterly. “Been up and down this whole bloody place and we haven’t found a thing besides the bags we left.”

“At least we’ve got the guns back.” Liam said, referring to the water guns filled with anointed water.

“What if the journal is there?” Harry asked.

“Why would Dipper hide the journal at the manor?” Liam asked.

“No one would ever think to look there. Plus, in a note he left he said that ‘all the money in the world couldn’t buy the location’.”

“Okay, but solving the cipher is gonna be slow if we’re doing it like this.” Zayn said. “Let’s split up. Louis and Liam can keep searching while the three of us take different chunks of the alphabet. Harry, you take the first eight shifts starting after the one I did, Niall can take the next eight, and I’ll take the last nine.”

Decoding was slow work and required concentration when shifting the entire alphabet several spaces. Zayn, Niall, and Harry were relatively quiet while they wrote, listening to Louis and Liam speak every so often. At one point, Zayn had to tell them off for shooting each other with the anointed water; they’d be out of luck if more ghosts showed up and it was all gone.

Harry scowled as he tied his hair up into a bun. He was about halfway through his share of shifts and hadn’t gotten anything. That was the bad thing about secrets in Gravity Falls— they were never easy to uncover. Ultimately, of course, it was a good thing, but he’d much rather be out exploring and discovering than failing at decoding. It wasn’t that he hated it; he and Zayn were quite content to solve the ciphers they found in the journals and around town all afternoon on lazy days. In fact, Harry had created his own cipher for emergencies (and for fun). The problem was that this time things felt more urgent. Usually, ciphers helped them learn about the past and piece together the hidden history of the town, but this time was different. These ciphers were affecting them in the present, and if they weren’t fast or smart enough, the boys could be dooming much more than Gravity Falls.

“I’ve got it!”

Niall’s shout broke the silence, scaring them all out of their thoughts. Harry immediately dropped everything and rushed to the blond’s side, his head hovering just above Niall’s shoulder.

“Seriously?” Zayn asked.

“Yeah, yeah, definitely. First word is ‘original’.”

“Niall, I love you.” The smile on Liam’s face could be heard in his voice.

Louis spoke next, his contagious energy pulsing through the airwaves. “We’re on our way back to you, Zayn.”

“Alright.” Zayn turned his attention back to Niall. “Which shift was it?”

“Twelve; A=M.”

“Sick…” Harry’s voice was soft as he looked down at the cipher.

“A=M,” Zayn echoed. “Give me a few seconds.”

The line was relatively quiet while he quickly decoded the message in his head. It was faster this way; even without the key in front of him, Zayn could decode anything as long as he knew what kind of cipher it was, giving their group an edge they needed.

“‘Original home of the subject.’”

“What the hell does that mean?” Louis asked.

“What subject?”

“That’s what we have to figure out.” Harry mumbled and pinched his bottom lip between his thumb and index finger.

After a moment of silence, Liam spoke. “Well, the subject’s got to be the monsters and creatures. And most of them live in the forest, right?”

“I’m with you for the first part,” Zayn said as he tapped his pen on the notebook. “But the forest seems too general.”

“Dipper added the word ‘original’,” Harry continued. “Loads of creatures have lived in places previous to forests.”

“Hm…”

Louis opened his mouth to speak but closed it quickly and shook his head; when no one else said anything, however, he broke the silence. “Under the bed.”

“Huh?”

“Under the bed,” he repeated. “You know, like the boogey man? It’s kinda the first monster you ever hear of. Used to have to check under me sisters’ beds every night so they felt safe.”

“Of course; nice work, Lou.” Zayn prompted his friend for a fist bump.

“But which bed?” Niall asked.

“There’s a few here in the shack,” Harry offered.

“Yeah, and about a few million here,” Louis groaned.

“Then we better start looking.”

Liam nodded. “Call us if you find anything, okay?”

Niall and Harry assured that they would and disconnected. Liam let out a small whine of annoyance as he looked around the massive manor and all the rooms they would have to recheck. They had searched under the beds before, but now that they knew they were looking for a journal, they’d have to try under the floorboards as well. As Louis “supervised” Zayn and Liam’s excursion to the underside of the bed in the master bedroom, Liam was struck with more than an idea.

“Hey, lads, why don’t we- ouch!” In an attempt to turn to Zayn, Liam hit his head on the bottom of the bed; he clenched his teeth and let out a low growl.

“You alright?” Zayn wiggled over and managed to put his hand on top of Liam’s head, his thumb rubbing over the spot that had been hit in hopes that he was helping it feel better.

“Yeah, yeah, clumsy me…”

Louis shoes approached the bed. “What’s going on down there?”

“Liam hit his head.”

“On the journal?”

“No,” Liam replied.

“Then suck it up, we’ve got a mystery to solve.”

Liam shook his head slightly, knowing Louis’ seeming indifference to his pain was a result of knowing he was actually okay. “I was just about to suggest something.”

“Out with it then.” Louis plopped down on the bed.

“Louis!”

“Come on, Zayn, I probably wasn’t even close to touching you. Thin as a twig you are; it’s about the only thing Lazy Susan’s right about these days…”

Zayn rolled his eyes. “What were you sayin’ Liam?”

“Right… I was thinking maybe we should go straight to Pacifica’s room. If the twins were gonna trust anyone in this house it’d be her."

“Makes sense. And it’ll save us loads of time if it is there.”

“Good thinking, Payno. Let’s go then.” Louis jumped off the bed and left the room without waiting for his friends.

Liam rolled his eyes before shimmying his body backwards and out from under the bed. He brushed himself off thoroughly; the thought of spiders crawling on him made him shudder. As he exited the room with Zayn, he couldn’t help but think that this was all too weird, even for them. He liked the mystery and figuring out what everything meant, but Niall’s cipher took the fun out of it. It made him watch every step just a bit closer and made his heart race a little faster every time someone yelled. He didn’t understand how they were meant to save the town— to save one of their own. A feeling of dread overtook him every time he thought of it; the last thing he wanted was for any of them to get hurt- or worse. Niall’s continuing doubts about the banshee had kept Liam awake last night, causing him to connect their earpieces every five minutes to make sure they were breathing. It was only when he heard one of Louis’ sisters sleepily ask the dark room where the beeping noise was coming from that he stopped.

There was a chill in the air as they approached Pacifica’s room. Liam saw Zayn absentmindedly rubbing his arm while Louis reflexively brought his hand to the Ecto-blaster strapped to his upper thigh. Liam looked around the hallway, trying to find any sign of ghost activity. The chipped paint on the wall turned to long scratch marks at one point and got progressively longer the closer they got to Pacifica’s room. He didn’t know if they were hers or someone else’s, and he wasn’t too keen on finding out. The chill intensified when they got to the bedroom door; now all three boys were holding on to their blasters. The last thing they needed was to be attacked. Again.

Louis reached out to turn the knob but was stopped when Liam grabbed him by the shoulder. He turned and looked from Liam’s hand to his face. “What?”

“Maybe we should knock?” He whispered.

Louis looked at him incredulously. “ _Knock?_ Who d’you think is gonna be in there?”

“I dunno; it just seems like the polite thing to do.”

Louis looked to Zayn, who shrugged, “Let’s just do it, yeah? Won’t hurt.”

“Can’t believe we’re taking time to be polite,” the oldest boy muttered as he rapped on the old wooden door. “Honestly… Well, no answer. Can we go in _now_ , Liam?”

He nodded, holding his blaster up to his chest.

“Fantastic.” To balance out the wasted manners, Louis unnecessarily kicked in the door before walking in, something of a satisfied grin spreading across his face as he heard the heavy oak bang against a nearby wall.

“Really?” Zayn raised an eyebrow as he lifted his weapon and propped it up on his shoulder.

“Had to do something cool after that.”

Liam entered the room cautiously, his blaster still at the ready. “Coulda sworn…”

“It was probably just a draft.” Louis said before tossing his blaster on top of the bed. “Now help me move this thing. There’s no way I’m crawling under.”

When Liam didn’t move, Zayn leaned his blaster against the wall and walked over to the opposite end of the bed.

“Right, on three. One- two-”

_“Excuse me!_ ”

“Oi!” Louis jumped a bit but was quickly dragged down by the bed as Zayn let go of it. “Thanks a lot, mate!”

“Blame her! Fucking scared the shit outta me…”

“Pacifica,” Liam breathed; he had snapped into form when her booming voice filled the room and was now lowering his weapon.

“Liam.” Arms crossed, the ghost of Pacifica Northwest, in the form of her thirty-year-old self, descended from a rotting armoire that belonged to the last person to inhabit the room. “Just what do you all think you’re doing?”

“We’re looking for something important,” Liam started. “Maybe you can-”

“Hang on,” Louis interrupted as he rubbed his red palms. “I’ve got a bone to pick with you, Northwest.”

“Oh, do you?” She seemed amused.

He scowled. “You’ve got some fucking nerve pretending to be a banshee and scarin’ Niall half to death.”

“I don’t know who this Niall person is, but I assume you’re Louis.” Pacifica turned to Liam. “You’re right, he is small.”

Louis’ jaw set and he clenched his hands into fists.

“Point is,” Zayn said, stepping between his friend and the ghost, “He thinks you’re a real banshee and that last night’s scream means someone’s gonna die.”

“Yeah, and it’d be nice if you just kinda let him know that it wasn’t like that. Cuz, you know, you’re not a real banshee and all that.”

Pacifica looked from Zayn to Liam a few times before uncrossing her arms, the sleeves of her silk shirt still as smooth as ever. “Well, it took you long enough to figure it out. But I can’t help you with your friend.”

“And why not?” Louis asked through gritted teeth.

“Because it wasn’t me.”

A heavy silence fell upon the room. Even Pacifica’s smirk had disappeared; she knew just how serious this had become.

Louis looked deflated. “You didn’t scream last night?”

She shook her head and floated back and forth as if she were pacing. Her skirt billowed behind her, causing patterns on the wall as the light hit it. “I left when the number of ghosts started to double. Something freaky was happening and I was not going to stick around to see what it was.”

“They chased us out of here.” Zayn explained. “We think someone sent them after us for trying to search the manor.”

“I didn’t send them,” she replied defensively.

“No, no, we know you didn’t.” Liam said quickly. “But there’s something we have to find, and we think it’s in your old room.”

“Did the twins ever give you anything to hide for them? Or maybe ask if they could hide something on the property?”

The ghost frowned. “No. They kept all that weird stuff to themselves really. Dipper always kept his journals with him. With all of the creatures they had to deal with here, I doubt they’d have left anything.”

“Would you mind if we looked around anyway?”

“Go ahead. Just try not to wreck anything.”

“It’d be hard to tell…” Louis muttered as he turned his back to Pacifica.

“I heard that.”

“Good.”

“Louis,” Zayn warned. “We need this.”

Louis sniffed. “Whatever.”

Zayn and Louis lifted the bed once more but only succeeded in getting it about a half inch off the ground. Liam positioned himself so that he could help lift from the middle and quickly backed up as they moved it to the side. It made a loud thud when it hit the ground, the wooden floor beneath it cracking slightly. A thick layer of dust rested on the space they had uncovered; a few paw prints from mice could be seen, but other than that, it was undisturbed.

“You know,” Pacifica floated over to them, the smell of her expensive perfume flooding their noses as they tried not to shudder from the cold she brought. “Now that I think about it, Mabel came over when we were eighteen for some random surprise pre-college sleepover.”

“Did she spend the night?”

“I humored her and her friends. After all, we weren’t enemies anymore and I wouldn’t be seeing her for a while. There was one point where she said she was making glow in the dark bracelets with our names on them and she disappeared under the bed for a long time.”

“Was she making them?” Liam asked.

“Yeah, but looking back, she took enough material under for eight bracelets instead of six.”

“What do they look like?”

“Pretty cheap,” Pacifica shrugged. “You’ll know it when you see it.”

Louis eyed her wrist, noticing an elastic bracelet with hot pink cube shaped beads. “Sure, cheap.”

She noticed his gaze and crossed her arms again, refusing to make eye contact.

“You didn’t happen to hear any prying sounds, did you?” Zayn tried to wipe the dust away with the bottom of his shoe, pouting at the resulting smudge.

“Prying? Like taking up the floorboards? Oh, she better not have or I’ll…”

“You’ll what? You’ve both been dead for like fifty years.”

Pacifica glared at Louis but said nothing.

The boys got on their knees to inspect the floor, slightly discouraged but nonetheless excited to see what they might find. They tried pulling up boards that were a bit loose, but only managed to crack them a little. The bags were emptied out in order to find anything that would give them some leverage, but after Liam’s failed attempt at breaking a board with their silver infused kitchen knife, they decided to look around for some other tools. Unfortunately, the manor’s abandoned status meant that not much was left in the room besides old furniture and creepy broken toys. Zayn looked through the closet, pushing past the moth eaten clothes to get to the back wall. There was a small black knob on it and, with some tugging, he was able to open a hidden door. In the small space was golf equipment, likely forgotten when the last of the Northwest family packed up and moved.

“Here, guys.” Zayn tossed Liam and Louis a wedge club each and pulled out an iron for himself.

“Hey, no, you can’t use those!” Pacifica protested.

“Why not?” Louis inspected his club and was mildly impressed with the condition.

“They’re family heirlooms.”

He scoffed. “Golf clubs as heirlooms?”

“I wouldn’t expect a little raccoon man to understand.” She said as she put her hands on her hips.

Zayn let out a loud laugh. “Raccoon man?”

Louis looked too confused to be offended as Liam positioned his club over a weaker floorboard. “We’re really sorry, Pacifica, but this is for the town. Plus, they’ve been sat here for thirty years and no one’s come to get them.”

“Well, maybe they’ve been busy.”

Louis rolled his eyes. “They live on the opposite side of town where the Gleeful Factory used to be.”

While Pacifica was distracted, Liam swung his club down on the floor, effectively splitting the board.

“No! Ugh, whatever. Not like I can play in the afterlife…”

“Glad that’s settled then.” Louis lifted up a board and frowned when he found nothing.

As Zayn was carefully prying up a few boards, he glanced at Liam, who was about to smash another. “Hang on a sec… What’s that?”

They looked to where he was pointing and saw that part of the wood was not actually wood at all. There was a rough circle cut into one of the floorboards and filled with some sort of putty painted to look like the floor. Louis stepped over and bopped it with the golf grip. It made a slight thud as it hit the ground below, revealing a hole just wide enough to hide something in.

“Anyone got a flashlight?”

Zayn passed his phone to Liam and watched as he crouched down to have a look inside. “See anything?”

“There’s something shiny down there, but I can’t get it through the hole.”

“Smash it up then.” Louis said.

“Right, stand back…” Liam swung as hard as he could and succeeded in simultaneously demolishing two boards.

Louis blinked a few times, never quite used to seeing this side of Liam, before stepping forward to help Zayn clear off the wood. When the space was cleared, they found two bracelets tied together at the ends so that the beads matched up perfectly. Zayn crouched down and picked them up, frowning as he inspected them.

“They’re blank.”

“You have to turn off the lights.” Pacifica said. “It’s the words that glow in the dark, not the beads.”

“How do the lights still work in this place anyway?” Louis asked as he went over to the lightswitch.

“The manor’s cursed.” Liam said simply.

“Cursed to have a high electric bill?”

Louis turned off the light and closed the door, the room now dark save for the glowing ghost in the middle of the room. Zayn turned the beads over, his eyes darting over them until they glowed just enough for him to see what was on them.

“Got anything, mate?” Liam asked.

He nodded. “It’s a key.”

“To what?” Louis walked over and stood on one side of Zayn while Liam stood on the other.

“To a homemade code.” He ran his thumb over the glowing letters and symbols.

**A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z**

**9 R # [ W Q 2 { 7 X P ! V * 4 J D : Z 6 E 3 I % 8 G**

“Which means there’s another cipher, right?” Liam asked.

“Yeah,” Zayn pressed a finger to his zombie decorated earpiece and waited for the beep to sound before continuing, “Harry? Niall? You there?”

“Harry’s indisposed at the moment; what’s up?”

“Have you found another cipher, lad?” Louis asked.

“Another cipher?” Niall groaned. “Fucking hell… No, we haven’t. Have you?”

“No,” Liam replied. “But we found the key for one under Pacifica’s bed.”

Muffled sounds came through the earpieces suddenly, causing the boys to look at each other in confusion.

“Come again, Niall?”

“Wasn’t me, Zayn. Think it was Harry; he’s swimming through the stuff in the storage room.”

“Why’s he in there?” Louis asked.

“There’s an old bed in the back, so he figured he’d check on it.”

“Did you guys check under the twin's’ beds already?”

The line was quiet for a moment before they heard a soft, “Fuck.”

“Oh lord…”

Zayn pinched the bridge of his nose, sharing Louis’ exasperation. “Right, well, get Harry and go back up to the attic.”

“There- beds- there…”

“Harry?” Liam pushed his Duck-tective earpiece in further. “What was that?”

“Bloody hell,” Harry’s voice came out clearer as he took a deep breath. “Nearly got eaten by the Croco-smile…”

“I’m not even gonna ask…”

“It’s a crocodile with dentures and-”

“DIDN’T ASK,” Louis yelled over the rest of the explanation.

“You gonna get out of the room, or what?” Niall asked impatiently.

“Right, right.” The sound of rummaging came through as Harry exited. “Anyway, I was saying that there aren’t any beds in the attic. Couple of mattresses but that’s it.”

Zayn frowned. “Does anyone know where they used to be?”

“Pushed up against the walls on either side of that weird triangle window.”

The boys jumped; they had forgotten Pacifica was there.

“What?” She put her hands on her hips as they stared at her.

“Nothin’... Just scared us is all.”

She rolled her eyes at Liam. “Whatever. I’m done hanging around here. Don’t mess anything else up.”

“Is that Pacifica?” Harry asked. “Did you ask her about the-”

“Not now, Harold. You’ve got beds to check.” Louis cut him off as Pacifica left, not wanting to bring up the banshee right now; he knew Harry was probably pouting, but they didn’t need to be worrying about who may or may not die.

“Fine, come on, Niall.”

Footsteps sounded as the three boys settled on the floor to examine the bracelets and copy the code in Liam’s journal.

“So, if you found a key, are we not gonna find the journal here?” Niall asked.

“I don’t think so. You’ll probably find the cipher that leads us to the journal.”

Harry pursed his lips. “Must be pretty dangerous if they made the clues this spread out.”

Niall and Harry returned to the attic and made the smart decision to take the blacklights with them while they searched. Liam filled them in on what he, Louis, and Zayn had found, leading them to believe whatever they were looking for wasn’t in plain sight. Harry took the left side of the room while Niall examined the right side, examining every inch of the floor and walls. While they looked, Zayn furrowed his brow at the key in front of him. Harry had a point; if Dipper had made his own code to hide this journal, they were definitely dealing with something dangerous. He wasn’t sure they were prepared for this, but they were in too deep now. Hopefully, with their years of experience, they’d be able to solve the mystery quickly and without any casualties. If only they could get more information faster...

“Zayn?”

“Hm?” He looked up at the sound of Harry’s voice.

“Does your key have symbols and numbers?”

Zayn sat up straighter. “Yeah, yeah it does.”

“I think I found the cipher, then. Niall, can you bring your light?”

“Sure thing.”

“Where’d you find it?” Liam asked.

“Written on the baseboard in invisible ink. Ready for it, Zayn?”

Zayn held his pen firmly, “Ready.”

“!79 **:** !79 **:** J9*6Z 4* Q7 **:** W.”

Louis wrinkled his nose. “Sounds messy. First two words are the same, though.”

Zayn’s pen started darting back and forth from the key to the cipher Harry had just read to him, pecking between letters and symbols. His tongue stuck out slightly in concentration as he scribbled down the translation. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears; they were so close.

“Wait, what’s this?” Niall’s voice came through, but it didn’t stop Zayn.

Liam looked away from Zayn. “Did you find something else?”

“I think so… Look at this, Harry.”

“Oh, yeah. There’s another message next to it. Different cipher, though. I’d say it’s a Caesar or an Atbash.”

“Read it out for me.” Zayn said as he finished.

“NZYVO NZWV NV DIRGV GSZG LMV.”

He paused for a few seconds, “‘Mabel made me write that one.’”

Louis raised his eyebrows; he was always impressed with how quick and accurate Zayn was with these things. He didn’t know where they’d be without him. “Made him write what?”

Liam leaned over to look at the first cipher, “‘Liar liar pants on fire.’ That must be it.”

There was a thud followed by a long groan from Harry.

“You alright, mate?”

“Another bloody clue…”

Louis rolled his eyes, but sighed in agreement. “How are we gonna figure this one out?”

“Easy,” Niall said. “The liars are the Northwests. That’s all Dipper saw them as, so whatever we’re looking for should be in the manor.”

“But where?”

“Fireplace?” Zayn suggested.

Harry picked himself up off the floor, flashing his blacklight on the wall.

“Whoa, whoa, Harry do that again.”

Harry complied with Niall’s request. “Oh, shit. There’s a massive triangle on the wall above the cipher.”

“Triangle and fire…” Louis narrowed his eyes. “That sounds familiar.”

Liam nodded in agreement before suddenly exclaiming, “Fire blanket!”

“Fire blanket?” Zayn’s brow furrowed.

“Fire blanket!” Harry repeated. “Lou, do you remember when you rigged that tapestry to fall on Liam when he walked in the den?”

“Um, yeah… Wait, yeah!” Louis jumped up. “It had a triangle on it and fire blazing under it!”

“Right! And I made that amazing pun about it being a fire blanket.”

“We all remember it differently, I suppose,” Louis said as he ushered Zayn and Liam out of the room.

“Do you remember where it is?” Niall asked as his finger traced over the ink triangle.

“The study, I think.” Liam jogged behind Louis, who led the way once Liam spoke.

They all silently hoped that this was the end of the hunt. Of course, they didn’t think they’d find the journal right away, but they assumed that some sort of map or final clue would be on the back of the tapestry. Fingers slid over the dusty perma-polished railings as the boys descended the stairs. The entire manor was quiet now save for their footsteps; Pacifica must have gone somewhere else, and the ghosts that had been called on to destroy the boys probably thought they were smart enough to not come back.

When they entered the study, the tapestry stuck out like a sore thumb. The boys ran to it, excitedly flipping it over only to be met with blank cloth. Not to be discouraged, Louis pressed on his earpiece for the luck of the Imoogi pictured on it and to reestablish contact with Niall and Harry.

“We’ve got nothing on the back. Tell me you’ve got something for this.”

“Still got the blacklight,” Niall responded. ”Bring it down to the shack and we can all figure it out.”

“And get some food,” Harry added.

Louis looked to Liam and Zayn, who nodded. “Alright, we’ll be there soon.”

“Be careful,” Niall warned. “If they’re watching us, they’ll be on your asses.”

The boys instinctively looked over their shoulders, Niall’s words suddenly becoming very real to them. Despite all that had happened, especially last night, the fact that they could be being watched hadn’t occurred to them. They filed out of the room to leave the manor, hands on their weapons and hearts in their throats.

**> >>>>**

Snow fell thick and fast on Gravity Falls that night, covering everything it could touch. It was the worst snow the town had seen in awhile, effectively stalling traffic on the main roadway. It gave Liam a sinking feeling in his stomach. He wanted to write it off as a coincidence, but being unable to leave town after making one of the biggest discoveries of their lives seemed a bit too strange. He turned his attention from the road to his traveling companion on the sidewalk, wincing slightly at the frown on Louis' face. The expression was beginning to replace his trademark mischievous grin, and it made Liam miss the way things were before the monsters arrived in Portland. He knew Louis was just worried about his family and the boys, though, so he usually just focused on encouraging his friend’s endearingly stupid antics rather than commenting on his somber expression.

They walked through town and silently wondered how everything could seem so peaceful. How could everyone just carry on without worrying that the next snowflake might trigger a cataclysmic explosion? Surely the police or Mayor Anton had to know. But if they did, why weren’t they doing anything? What could five boys do that they couldn’t? Liam hated not knowing. As much as they were finding, it didn’t feel like they were getting any closer. Last night was wasted, as they hadn’t had a chance to examine the tapestry after all. Liz had quickly and suspiciously kicked them out of the shack when the trio arrived to meet with Harry and Niall, and, unfortunately, the black lights had been left behind in their haste. Harry managed to get them back in the morning, but they all felt like they had lost precious time. Liz’s behavior was definitely worth looking into, but their current workload meant that they would have to leave that particular mystery to Eleanor and Sophia.

“This could be it.” Liam said, breaking the mid-morning silence.

Louis nodded slowly but kept his frown and his gaze focused straight ahead.

Liam furrowed his brow. “You alright, mate?”

“Yeah.”

“This isn’t about yesterday, is it?”

Louis scrunched his nose in confusion as he swiped his fingers over his fringe.

“Look, when I told Pacifica you were small, it was-”

“Oh, no, Liam, don’t. Stop.”

“No, I should’ve said something. I told her that like a few weeks after I had met you. I didn’t like, mean it in a bad way or anything.”

Louis shook his head. “Just shut up, Liam. It doesn’t even matter; like you said, it was years ago.”

“Come on now, you know I wouldn’t. Like, if I was introducing you today I’d use a different word.”

“Oh? Would you?”

“Course I would. Like, brave, or leaderful, or something like that.”

Louis raised an eyebrow and leaned backwards, looking incredulous. “Leaderful? Really, Liam? Shut up…”

“Hey,” he pouted but quickly grinned as Louis slung his arm around his shoulders.

“Brave, eh? Fearless Tommo…”

“More like Terrible Tommo.”

Liam laughed, even when Louis whacked him on the back of the head, and held back a tree branch as they trekked through a small wooded area in front of Greasy’s. Zayn, Harry, and Niall were already settled in a booth near the wireless jukebox when they arrived, noses still slightly pink from the cold. Niall was seated across from the pair, looking at what appeared to be several maps of Gravity Falls, as Zayn sketched, his journal taking up whatever was left of the table top. Harry was staring at his lap, his lips slightly pursed as he periodically wrinkled his nose.

“Looks like we came just in time for the good stuff.” Louis squeezed in on Zayn and Harry’s side, causing the former to sigh at a line that had gone crooked and the latter to spring into action.

“What are you doing, Harry?” Liam looked at his friend wearily as he sat next to Niall.

“Lazy Susan kept shoving this plate of pancakes at me, but there’s no table space.”

“Why don’t you just eat them?”

“Pretty sure the blue stuff is her mascara…” He lifted the plate for them to assess, matching their grimaces when they realized he wasn’t holding blueberry pancakes.

“I don’t know how the hell you manage to work here still.” Niall shook his head as he spoke to Louis, his attention back on his maps.

He shrugged, “It pays the bills.”

“What bills?”

“School bills.”

Everyone nodded solemnly before Zayn spoke. “So, did you two bring the tapestry?”

“Oh, yeah.” Liam gently pulled the old, somewhat threadbare decoration from his bag, dangling it awkwardly over the table while waiting for further instructions.

“What’s with all the maps, Niall?”

“Figured we were gonna find one on the back of that thing, so I just wanted to be ready.”

“With fifty maps?” Louis asked.

“Gravity Falls has changed a lot.” Harry replied as he tried to slide his plate to the next booth. “Not even this town could stay exactly the same in the span of nearly one hundred and thirty years.”

“You can put the tapestry on the map of 2050,” Zayn said as he put his notebook away and exchanged it for one of the blacklights.

“You know, if there isn’t a map on the back of this, I’m gonna be pissed…”

“Or if it’s another cipher,” Liam grumbled.

“Well, only one way to find out.”

Louis took the blacklight and flipped the switch, whacking it with the lower part of his palm when it merely flickered in response. He slowly scanned the back of the tapestry with it once it finally reached a steady glow, intently searching for even the smallest marking. As he got lower, they started to see lines and boxes making a pattern. It was rough, but it was definitely a map of the town. Important landmarks like the Shack and the cemetery were labelled clearly, giving the boys a guide as to where things matched up with the current landscaping. An empty plot of land near the center of town was circled in thick, heavy lines, clearly indicating the place they were expected to look.

“There it is, lads.” Louis was standing now, his excitement building rapidly.

“Yeah, but _where_ is it?”

Niall responded to Liam’s query by going back to his maps. The same empty lot was present in all but the last two versions, where a house was depicted instead. “That’s where.”

“Near the tattoo parlor,” Zayn said as he tried to remember what house that was.

“Oh shit…”

“What?” Harry looked to Louis who had tipped his head back.

“The sixth journal is at the mayor’s house.”

**> >>>>**

“But why does Mayor Anton have the journal?”

“Maybe she doesn’t know she does. I mean, this lot used to be the junkyard when the twins lived here.”

“A junkyard?” Harry wrinkled his nose at Niall. “Why would she build her house here?”

Niall shrugged. “Sentimental?”

“For garbage? That’s gross.” Zayn shook his head, his hands hovering behind Louis as he tried to scale the wooden fence in the back.

“Should you really be doing that?” Liam asked. “I mean, she’s the mayor. There’s bound to be guards or police somewhere.”

“She’s the mayor, Payno, not the president. Besides, we all know she’s off. They’ve probably got her stashed away somewhere.”

Zayn frowned and nearly missed when Louis’ foot slipped. “Careful, mate.”

“Liam’s got a point, though.” Harry said. “How are we supposed to search for the journal? It’s illegal, especially considering who she is.”

“Mayor or not, we have to get this journal.” Louis snapped. “Besides, if she cared about this town, she’d be helping us or doing this herself instead of sending us stupid clues.”

“You think she’s the one sending them?” Niall asked.

“Who else would know the secrets of this town enough?”

“But she’s an Anton; what would she know?”

“You can’t be mayor and not know.” Louis swung one leg over the fence and surveyed the backyard. “Looks clear. All the windows are dark and there aren’t any big guys waiting to shoot us.”

“That’s comforting.” Zayn began climbing and stopped when his head poked over. “But couldn’t we have just come through the front?”

Although the front of the house was only partially visible from where they were, it was clear that it was only protected by a waist high chain link fence. Louis scowled and jumped down in response, looking around while the others made it over. Liam put his hands on his hips, eyes widening as realization hit him with the same amount of force as Harry’s face on the ground.

“Where are we supposed to look? I mean, we can’t just start digging around the yard.”

“We could check inside the house.”

“That’s breaking and entering, Niall.” Harry chastised, brushing himself off on his way to join the group.

“Well, we’re already breaking the law,” Louis shrugged. “Why stop now?”

Zayn followed him to the backdoor in silent agreement, Liam looking on as if they had smacked him in the face. “No, no, no, that’s not a good idea! We should get out of here and regroup.”

“And what if the journal is in there, Liam? What then?”

“We’ll figure something out. If it is in there, what are you gonna do? Steal it?”

“Uh, yeah,” Zayn said.

Liam buried his face in his hands. “Oh my god, we’re all going to jail…”

“But we could be in for worse if we don’t get that journal.”

“We’ll just split off again, yeah?” Niall stepped forward. “Louis and I will stay here and creep around to see what we find. You three go see if you can talk to the mayor. If she does have the journal, she could also be sending us the ciphers.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“Hang on,” Harry said grumpily, crossing his arms over his chest in apparent preparation for an argument.

“What?” Louis asked. “You wanna break in with me?”

“No. But I just spent five minutes climbing that fence for nothing.”

After a collective “shut up” sounded, the boys split up. Zayn hoped that at least one of them would be successful. He also really wanted to know why the mayor had built her home on top of an old junkyard. He pressed his earpiece twice, joining a sub frequency Sophia had set up.

“Louis, if this is you asking if you can have a snowball fight with Bruce again, I already told you that you can do it _after_ I get him his coat.” Eleanor’s voice filled Zayn’s ear, sounding slightly exasperated over the soft hum of people talking in the background.

“Uh, it’s Zayn.”

“Oh. Well in that case, you should really get your ass down to the museum. They’ve got me on tour duty.”

Zayn crinkled his nose and stuck out his tongue slightly. “No thanks. I actually need your help.”

“Sophia’s out trying to question Liz right now.”

“Good, but not what I had in mind.”

“Alright, what is it?”

“What do you know about Mayor Anton and her house?”

Eleanor was quiet for a while. “In terms of supernatural? Nothing for the house. It used to be the junkyard decades ago, but that’s it.”

“And her?”

“Well, no, but yes.”

“What’s the yes?”

“When she first got elected, everything was great. Lots of progress was made in the town and all that, but a couple of years in, something changed. When people noticed, they came up with conspiracy theories to explain it.”

Zayn frowned. “Like what?”

“Oh, you know, the usual. She had died and they put her brain in a robot, or that she was always a robot who just suddenly malfunctioned. There was the one that said she was actually a puppet for some higher power. Stuff like that.”

“Do you believe any of it?”

“Of course not. Do you?”

“No.”

“Good; ‘cause if you did, I’d believe _you_ were the robot.”

Zayn chuckled as he continued to walk behind Liam and Harry. “Is there anything about Anton from before she was mayor? Family history or something?”

“I don’t know much about her, but there might be some stuff in the archives. Official documents would still be at Town Hall, though. And with all the theories, I doubt even I could get them for you.”

“Hm,” he bit down on his lower lip. “Well, we’re on our way to see her now, actually. But anything you can dig up about her past would be great.”

“I’ll see what I can do. Good luck with the mayor; no one’s actually seen her since her last campaign. Even Mayor Befufftlefumpter got out more than her.”

“Right. Hopefully she’s not a robot.”

“Fingers crossed. Oh, and can you tell Harry to stop leaving Bruce treats everyday? I found a nice stash of them under my bed for his midnight snacks.”

Zayn laughed. “Will do.”

The pair disconnected just as the boys reached Town Hall. Immediately, Zayn felt a cold envelop him. It wasn’t like the chill of a ghostly presence; it was a cold that gripped his soul and swore to never let go. He didn’t want to move, not even to run away. A part of him felt compelled to go in. Yes, that was the goal, but this was telling him to go in and forget the rest. Forget the danger. Forget the boys. Just go in and stay awhile.

_Come on in, Zayn._

Harry sneezed, snapping Zayn out of his trance. He shook his head, the hairs on the back of his neck sticking up. He glanced over at Liam and Harry, squinting slightly to see if they heard the same thing. Liam was standing just a bit closer to the building than Harry, his eyes fixated on the clock at the top. He looked calm but not serene, eyes glossy and wide. He didn’t seem to have heard anything, but at this point, Zayn wondered if he’d even notice a truck running him over. Harry was wrinkling his nose and coughing more and more as the seconds ticked by. He pulled his jumper over half of his face, resting the collar on his nose. A near imperceptible wheezing could be heard over the sound of fingers fumbling against fabric, hands shaking as he finally managed to pull his inhaler out of his backpack.

If he concentrated on the boys, Zayn felt relatively fine. There was still a grip on him, but he could move and breathe. He was okay. But the moment he looked away, he seized up again. He had thoughts of fire and could hear dogs barking in the distance. The tips of his fingers burned as he could suddenly recall every picture he’d ever drawn, every creature he and Louis had ever made up. They had to leave. They had to get out of here.

“Let’s go in then.” Liam said quietly.

“Are you kidding?” Harry asked, his voice small. “It reeks! There’s no way I can stay outhere another minute, let alone go _in_ there.”

“Stay out here, then.”

“Mate, what the hell?” Zayn reached out and touched Liam’s shoulder.

Liam jumped, eyes wide; his hand shot to his chest, fingers pressing into the fabric of his jacket. “You nearly gave me a heart attack, Zayn.”

“Sorry, but you were actin’ all weird there.”

He frowned. “I didn’t do anything.”

“You were gonna leave me out here,” Harry managed to croak before coughing violently, his entire frame shaking with the force of the exhale.

“What?” Liam’s face twisted. “No, that doesn’t make sense. We only just got here; no time to make any decisions.”

Zayn looked up at the building warily. It was cleaner than the other ones in town- birds were avoiding it in every way possible, wings making sharp turns mid-flight. In fact, even the sunlight looked to be bending away from the vicinity. “Maybe we shouldn’t go in.”

“But we need the journal.”

“Yeah, I know, but… I just like, don’t get a good feeling from this place.”

“Plus, it smells.” Harry had moved to stand behind Zayn, his face buried in his jacket. “I’ll probably die if I go in there.”

Liam didn’t hear his complaints, however, as he had gone back to staring at the building. Harry frowned into Zayn’s shoulder before clearing his throat.

“What’s with him?”

“I’m telling ya, there’s something off about this place.”

“Something off about this town…” Harry mumbled; Zayn knew he meant it sarcastically, but the words carried so much more meaning now than ever before.

“Liam…” Zayn reached out for him again, setting his face in a grimace as the other boy jumped again in fear.

“Jesus, mate! You need to stop doin’ that!”

He shook his head and held on to Liam’s shoulder. “Lads, something is definitely off. When was the last time any of us were here?”

They were quiet for a moment before Harry spoke. “I’ve never actually been.”

Liam stuck his bottom lip out. “Me neither. Soph came by here once with Eleanor, but they didn’t go in.”

“Isn’t that weird? Like, no one ever goes in there.”

“Then that means the journal has to be in there.” Harry reasoned.

They stood on the sidewalk for what seemed like forever, internally weighing the pros and cons. In the end, the journal was the most important thing, and if Zayn’s feelings were right, they’d be getting a lot more than a book when they went in.

“Fine. We’ll go in, but there’s gonna be some rules.”

“What kind of rules?”

“We stay in contact no matter what,” Zayn started. “Physical contact. When we lose each other, we lose ourselves. That’s the most important rule.”

“Fair enough. I think I breathe better like this anyway,” Harry half joked.

“Next rule is that we don’t split up under any circumstances. We’ve never seen anyone go in or out of that building, so we have no idea what we’re gonna see.”

“And we don’t touch anything,” Liam finished. “If there are any cursed objects in there to keep people away, we’ll be screwed if we touch them.”

Zayn nodded. “Let’s do this as fast as we can, alright?”

“I think we should have one last rule.” Harry said in an almost whisper.

“What?”

“Let’s adopt the cardinal rule of Gravity Falls this time— trust no one.”

They agreed and made their way up the steps, careful not to accidentally let go of each other. When they reached the door, they all stared at the handle, too afraid of what was on the other side to do anything. After a few seconds, Liam reached out with the hand Zayn was almost holding and opened the door.

At first, Zayn was so relieved that he nearly let go of Liam and Harry. The main area was an inviting lobby with two corridors on either side, brightly lit with artificial plants decorating the tables and corners. A large wooden desk was centered towards the back wall with a closed, windowless room behind it. Zayn wasn’t really sure what he expected. Maybe someplace rundown with bloodstains and chalk outlines or something. In any case, this was a lot better than anything he could’ve thought up. However, he kept his guard up, noticing there didn’t seem to be a single person in the building.

Harry nudged him, breathing deeply into Zayn’s shoulder to try and avoid the smell that had intensified upon their entrance. It made what they saw next that much more eerie- the absence of a receptionist and a single flickering light right above the door to a closed back room. Of course, neither of these things were particularly sinister as long as the trio didn’t think about the rancid smell possibly being connected to a missing body stored behind the creepy door. The cold had also come back to grab them all this time, so they decided not to take any chances with possible paranormal activity getting the jump on them, hands already moving towards their weapons before they bothered to break the tense silence.

“Ghost?” Liam asked.

Zayn shook his head. “Not unless it’s a gang of level tens…”

“Let’s ring the bell then.”

They followed Harry’s suggestion and approached the front desk, tapping down on the call bell twice before waiting. Harry jumped slightly and held on to Zayn as the light suddenly flickered twice as fast as it had been. They were so focused on the light that they didn’t hear when someone approached them from the right side of the building.

“Can I help you?”

The woman who approached them was wearing a dress, her brown hair tied up in a ponytail to reveal strands of pink, purple, and blue hair on the underside. She looked to be in her early thirties, and, although her overall appearance was largely forgettable, Zayn picked up on a few things besides her unnaturally silky and brightly colored hair. Around her neck was a silver chain that carried a blue and white circular gem; it reminded him of the satellite pictures of Earth that Niall had on the walls of his room. But that wasn’t her only piece of peculiar jewelry. She was also wearing a single mercury-filled bracelet and matching anklet. Zayn furrowed his brow slightly as he silently wondered what purpose the bizarre accessories might have. Was she harmless and protecting herself? Or was she the reason he was tempted to push the boys away and go down the hallway alone?

“We’re here to see Mayor Anton, if that’s alright.” Liam said.

“The mayor is very busy,” she said as she went behind the desk and took out a piece of paper. “What’s this about?”

“We’re, uh, concerned citizens, and we’d like to talk to her about some things.” Harry said, trying not to focus on the fact that the light was no longer strobing and that he could suddenly breathe.

“Mhm.” She didn’t look up, allowing the room to slip into uncomfortable silence.

Zayn shifted his weight to his left foot. “Er, Miss…”

“Nina.”

“Miss Nina, it’s urgent, really.”

“I’m sure it is, but the mayor is incapable of seeing anyone right now. You may leave your concerns in writing and I’ll see that they get to her as soon as possible.” Nina only paused working long enough to push a form and pen across the desk, returning to her writing as a silent signal that their conversation had ended.

“Oh, uh, thanks…” Liam took the items and turned to face the boys, lowering his voice to a whisper. “I wish Louis was here; he’d know what to do.”

“You and Zayn are practically Louis deconstructed. We’ve been around him enough to know what he’d do.” Harry said.

Zayn agreed. “We’ll just have to wait until she leaves and slip in behind her. Sneak into the office.”

So they waited, Liam pretending to fill out the form before actually documenting his concern about the large pothole on the road leading to the lake. Harry kept his eyes on the light and the door below it, an uneasy feeling growing in his stomach. Zayn soon came to realize that the cold in his chest disappeared as he stared at Nina. He had never seen her before, not even walking around town. In any other town, this wouldn’t be much of a surprise, but, of course, Gravity Falls wasn’t any other town. The boys’ home was so small that everyone knew each other, making it especially strange that she didn’t look the slightest bit familiar.

When Nina finally left, she walked down the left hallway instead of going back the way she came. Shrugging, the boys waited until they couldn’t see her anymore before heading off in the opposite direction. They didn’t know the layout of the building, but since most public places were clearly labelled, they didn’t think they’d have any trouble finding Anton’s office. The real problem was that with Nina gone, the smell and horrible feelings came back, worsening the further they moved from the main entrance. Zayn nearly decided to forgo the mission for Harry’s sake, but a firm press on his back urged him forward. If he looked back on this moment, he would force himself to not think about it too much; he was never entirely sure it was Harry’s hand that touched him.

As they approached a corner, they stopped abruptly. Liam looked back at Zayn and Harry, knowing they had seen the same dark shadows slip around the corner and disappear. Harry coughed violently, nearly throwing up as he doubled over in apparent pain.

“Maybe we should leave.” Liam managed to say.

“‘S fine… ‘M okay.”

“No you aren’t.” Zayn said. “It’s hitting you worse than us.”

Harry shook his head but couldn’t say anything.

“Mate,” Liam coughed. “It’s fine.”

“No, Liam,” he choked. “It’s not fine. Let’s get the journal. Then- then we can complain about it smelling worse than a barn.”

Liam looked to Zayn, who reluctantly nodded. They continued on, the smell and cold getting worse with every step. Even holding on to his boys, Zayn was having a difficult time focusing. He kept hearing a multitude of small voices in his head, something that wouldn’t be too disturbing if it weren’t for the fact that he didn’t recognize any of them. Whispers and nudges were pressing him to let go, to allow Harry to move outside and split up with Liam, to go on alone. But just as he was about to succumb, Liam pointed at a nearby door. To the side of it was a nameplate— Mayor Estelle Anton.

“‘Ere we are…” Harry wheezed.

“You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s just get it over with.”

Liam knocked on the door, his knuckles visibly shaking. There was no immediate response. “Maybe she’s not in?”

“Nina said she was here,” Zayn countered. He knocked with his free hand and opened the door shortly after.

He wished he hadn’t.

“Holy shit…”

Harry’s words died in his throat as they entered the office. Nothing in the journals could have prepared them for what they were seeing. Mayor Anton usually looked like a normal black woman in her early forties, her dark, curly hair parted neatly to complete her business-professional look. Now it was a different story. She glowed brightly, a green haze surrounding her body as she hovered in the air. Yeah, hovered. She was looking down at a 3D replica of Gravity Falls, pushing small figures around with her fingers and marking something on a pad of paper. But that wasn’t the weirdest part. The reason the boys were glued to the spot had to do with what was surrounding Mayor Anton. About a half dozen glowing shapes, all wearing some sort of neck accessory, were around the table as well, some talking to the mayor while others seemed to be working on their own projects.

Even if they thought to run, the boys couldn’t leave. Their entrance had not gone unnoticed, and soon all eyes were on them. Liam’s eyes widened as he realized that there were half as many eyes as there should have been, and that none of them had mouths. He squeezed Zayn’s hand when he locked eyes with Mayor Anton. Her sclerae were pale green, and instead of a normal iris and pupil, she had what looked to be black spheres. Even that wasn’t an accurate description, however, as the sides contained several sharp vertices.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Creator and his friends, the Scribbling Stooges. Never thought I’d see you while I was in this body.” Anton grinned widely, each tooth glinting with barely contained malice.

“W-who are you?” Liam stammered.

“Can’t you read, boy? I’m the mayor.”

“Bullshit,” Zayn growled.

Her eyebrows rose slightly. “No need to get hostile. What’s wrong, Zayn? Don’t like the sound of my voice?”

Zayn gripped Liam’s hand so hard, the latter was positive it was about to break. “What have you done with the mayor?”

“I’m sure that’s not what you really came here for, is it, kid?” A circle floated away from its board and stopped just in front of them, red aura pulsing with every word to indicate that it was speaking. Unexpectedly, its body began to flash quickly, images appearing on its front. They could only make out a few pictures: Harry and Louis running through the forest, Eleanor in the shack, and Harry throwing a lamp at a wall.

“We know why you’re here.” A square entity said from its place between a sphere and a pyramid. Its voice was similar to the the others, slightly high pitched and nasally, but still discernible. If they weren’t so threatening, the boys might have laughed.

“I think they want this.” A purple hexagon floated in front of them and snapped its fingers. A journal with a yellow triangle and the number six appeared, spinning around tauntingly.

Liam quickly made a grab for it, only to have it turn into a puff of smoke the moment his fingers made contact. The shapes laughed at him, their bodies glowing brighter in apparent mirth.

“Man, I didn’t think he’d be stupid enough to try it!”

“Shut up!” Harry attempted to yell, voice catching in his throat.

“What’s the matter, bun head?” A blue star jeered. “Got a cold?”

Harry shrunk back behind Zayn, sniffling. Zayn kept his grip tight on Liam and grabbed Harry with his other hand, ready to bolt. “How do you know about the journal?”

“Oh, we know _everything_ , kid!” The star blinked twice and Zayn’s mind was suddenly filled with images of a horse riding a horse, hooves flailing in the air as it failed to find any reins.

He let go of Harry to rub his eyes, as if it would take the images away. “Cut the crap! Just give us the journal and we’ll leave.”

“Yeah. We won’t tell anyone what’s going on here.” Liam assured. “No one would ever believe us anyway.”

“You know what?” Anton started. “That’s not a bad idea. But I’ve got something better.”

Liam and Zayn exchanged a glance, worry written all over their faces.

“How about we keep the journal and two of your souls?”

“How is that better??”

She shrugged. “Never said anything about it being better for _you_. Besides, at least one of you gets to keep your soul. Being the mayor of this democratic town, I’ll let you choose who it is.”

Panicked, Zayn turned to look at the boys; they had to think of a way out of here and fast. There was one problem, though- Harry was missing.

Zayn hadn’t even felt his youngest friend let go. But now he was gone, and it wouldn’t be long before the glowing shapes noticed. Liam’s eyes widened as he looked just past Zayn. He could see Harry crawling behind the mayor’s desk, his face red from his attempts to not cough. He was heading for a bookshelf, and once Liam looked at it, he knew the journal was there and that Harry had spotted it before anyone else.

“Take my soul and let them go,” Liam blurted out.

“Are you crazy?” Zayn whispered harshly.

“Looks like he’s even stupider than we thought!” The hexagon cackled.

Anton smirked and crossed her arms. “It’s a noble effort, but I need two souls to complete my plans. Besides, your soul isn’t nearly good enough for two.”

A short but loud laugh came from the other side of the room. Harry was now standing— well, leaning heavily against the desk— with the journal clutched tightly in his hand. “That is- the- stupidest thing- I- have- ever heard.” He wheezed.

Anton’s glow flared up as she rose a few inches. “How did you-”

“Sorry- but none- of- us- are gonna be- your _soul-_ diers.” Harry straightened up and flung his arm forward, sending the journal clear across the room. It hit Liam square in the chest before he fumbled to catch it, too focused on staring at Harry as he tried to process what had been said.

“Did he just…”

“Mate, you’re fucking _dying_ and you decide to make a pun?” Zayn looked incredulous, as did the entities.

“It was- supposed to be,” he coughed violently, “a great closer. Run…”

Harry’s last word seemed to spark them into action. The entities split up and went after the boys, surrounding Harry and chasing the other two down the hallway. Liam screamed for Harry but was only met with the harsh shrieks and deep growls of the shapes that were quickly gaining on them. Zayn tried to multi-task: running, holding on to Liam, and searching his backpack for something, anything that could help them. He found a sage bomb at the bottom and ripped off the tab with his teeth before tossing it behind him. He didn’t think it would work on these kinds of entities, but it would slow them down just enough for him to try and think of a new plan.

Liam tripped, nearly dragging Zayn down with him. He didn’t have the breath to say he was sorry. Instead, he yanked his friend out of the way of a nearby end table and pulled out his mini water gun. He was lucky he had filled it with blessed water last night and almost smiled when he shot over his shoulder and heard screams of agony. But they were still being chased, and there wasn’t enough water in his little gun for all of them. Abruptly, Liam was jerked back by Zayn, who had stopped in his tracks.

“What are you doing? We have to keep going!”

“Go ahead.” He said blankly. “Go on without me.”

“You’re fucking mental! I’m not leaving you. No splitting up, remember? Now come on, we’ve got to find a way back to Harry.”

“It’s fine. Get out with the journal, and I’ll go back for him.”

“With what weapons? Mate, you don’t sound like-” Liam cut himself off, a white hot rage he’d never felt bubbling inside of him. “Get out.”

“What?”

“Get out! Get the fuck out of my friend!” Liam shouted and pulled out a second plastic water gun.

“Hey, hey, it’s just me, buddy.” Zayn put up his hands in defense, his mouth slowly twisting into a grin.

“Last chance. Get out!”

Just as Zayn began to glow blue, Liam shot him with the water, watching with only mild satisfaction as he fell over in pain. He didn’t wait for the star to do more than exit Zayn’s body before he hoisted his friend up and started running again. Zayn was stumbling behind Liam as they turned corners, mumbling in confusion. Liam didn’t have time to explain, too focused on getting back to the main entrance and down that left hallway. He was fairly sure it would take them all the way back around to the mayor’s office, allowing them to get Harry and get the hell out of there. Running too fast, neither Liam nor Zayn had time to even attempt to slow down before they crashed into someone coming right at them.

“Harry!” Zayn threw his arms around him, awkwardly jerking Liam’s arm. “What the hell man?”

“We thought you were back at the office,” Liam panted. “They all ganged up on you.”

“Fought ‘em off.” Harry said with a lopsided grin. “Takes a lot more than that to take down a Styles.”

They rolled their eyes, momentarily forgetting that at least one other entity had to still be chasing them. Harry shrugged and was still grinning when Zayn noticed something different about him.

“What’s that?”

“This?” Harry held up a blue and white stone that was hanging around his neck. “Dunno. Woke up and it was on me, along with this bracelet. Oh, and this.” He pointed to a piece of silky blue hair that was fastened to the rest of his hair with a small butterfly clip. “Doesn’t matter; you’ve got the journal, yeah?”

“Yeah, we got it. Here.” Liam handed it to Harry, who opened it excitedly. Immediately, his face fell. “What’s wrong?”

“This is a joke, right?”

“What are you on about?” Zayn asked before nervously looking over his shoulder.

“This book is full of stickers.”

“ _What?_ ”

Harry threw it into Zayn’s open bag, “The journal is fucking fake!”

Zayn opened his mouth to speak but quickly shut it and closed his eyes tightly as two voices pierced through his mind.

_Come back, Zayn. I just wanna talk. Let your friends go and we’ll have a nice chat._

_**Yeah, just a chat. We’ll even let you keep that journal. Just tell us where you are.** _

“We- we have go _now._ ”

There was a loud crash nearby that made them jump, but they didn’t stick around to find out what it was. They ran back the way Harry had come, knowing the entrance wasn’t too far away. All the lights began to flicker as a roar built up behind them. When they made it to the lobby, time seemed to slow down, but not for Harry. He kept on pulling them, managing to get them out the door. Swiftly, he pulled a marker from his pocket and drew several symbols and shapes on the double doors, falling on his butt when a massive boom came from the other side. He panted and scrambled backwards before finally managing to stand up. It didn’t take him long to catch up with Liam and Zayn, though Zayn was a bit ahead.

They ran until they reached the edge of town, stitches in their sides as they worked up a cold sweat. Eventually, they saw two figures coming towards them, and Harry finally felt safe. He let himself slow down as they approached Louis and Niall, noticing that Liam did the same. But Zayn wasn’t slowing down. If anything, he was going faster.

Zayn threw his bag at Louis before the latter could greet them or ask why they were running. He scrambled to catch it, the fake journal falling into a puddle of melted snow as Zayn continued to run, steadily getting further away from the boys. They watched him, frozen to the spot. Without warning, rapid beeps in their ears told them that Zayn had disconnected his earpiece.

“What the fuck was that about?” Louis asked, his face torn between anger and concern.

Liam swallowed hard, his fingers shaking by his sides.

“Lads?”

Harry turned to Niall, his lip red from biting on it so hard. “Stuff happened.”

“No, shit, Harry.”

Liam looked at Louis crossly. “The journal we found was a fake, but we know what’s happening now. We know what’s in the sixth journal.”

“Well?” Louis slung the backpack over his shoulder; he attempted to remain unconcerned about the way Liam and Harry were acting, but failed when Harry spoke again.

“Demons.”

**> >>>>**

In the days after the Town Hall incident, everything seemed to be at a standstill. Zayn locked himself away with his family, only allowing the boys to visit after Eleanor nearly broke down his door. The demonic shapes they encountered appeared to be waiting for them to make their next move. Surely, they knew that the journal the boys had obtained was a fake, so without the information they needed to stop them and Zayn out of commision, things looked pretty great for that team. Either that, or Harry’s sharpie wards were stronger than they thought. Even though the demons didn’t come after them, Liam, Niall, Louis, and Harry spent most of their time holed up in the bunker. After some research with Sophia, Harry had figured out that his new jewelry pieces were actually meant to ward off demons and protect their minds. He and Liam then spent a day putting each of their houses under this protection while Niall and Louis got the last element— unicorn hair.

Now they were mostly healed from the demon encounter, ready and willing to press on and find the real journal. With it, they’d know how to get rid of all the shaped menaces and save more than just Gravity Falls. They still didn’t exactly understand what the entire evil plan was, but they would much rather stop it early than waste time figuring it out. This resolve brought Louis and Harry to the forest that afternoon while Niall, Liam, and Sophia searched for the identity of “Nina”, who they suspected saved Harry.

Louis and Harry both wore the moonstone, mercury, and unicorn hair protections as they made their way through the woods, interviewing any creature they met in their attempt to gather information. They didn’t learn much beyond whispers of what they already knew- Mayor Anton was possessed by a demon and had been since her early years in office. But they did find that the amount of creature activity had increased around a certain point. Doing the math, they figured it was around one hundred and five years since Dipper and Mabel had come to Gravity Falls. Regardless, they couldn’t see how useful this information was, meaning they were still stuck.

“Can you believe it’s been over one hundred years and no one knows shit about demons?” Louis grumbled.

“Dipper knew.”

“Yeah, and a load of help that is without the journal. I think it’s still in Town Hall.”

“I’m not going back there.” Harry snapped.

Louis’ eyes widen slightly. “Alright, Harold. Wasn’t suggesting it.”

He sighed and tilted his head back slightly. “Sorry… It’s just Zayn…”

“I know.” Louis gently bumped Harry with his shoulder as they weaved through the trees. “He’ll be fine.”

“How fine can you be after having multiple demons in your head and then getting possessed?”

Louis shrugged.

“I bet Nina has the journal. She knows about demons, and she sent us right to them.”

“Don’t remind me. I’ll kill her…”

“But she also saved me.”

“Well, make up your mind then, mate.”

Harry smiled slightly. “We have to find her first. Then we can pass judgement and toss a bucket of ice water on her.”

Louis looked amused. “Small start, but you’ll get there. Shall we head back to Zayn’s? I doubt we’ll do much more but freeze our tits off if we stay out here longer.”

“I guess so.” He was clearly disappointed they hadn’t found anything new. Time seemed to be an important factor here, and it was slipping away from them faster than anyone cared to admit.

“Maybe the others have found something,” Louis offered as he clapped a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Or we’ll run into some all-knowing creature on the way back.”

“I wish the all-knowing mailbox was still around.”

“If it were, we wouldn’t have to go through this shit.”

They continued walking, keeping an eye out for anything that could help and listening for sounds of impending doom. After a few seconds, Harry whipped around and froze.

“Alright there?”

“Shh,” he whispered. “Something’s there…”

Louis slowly reached for his backpack, ready in case he needed to grab a weapon. “I don’t hear anything.”

“Listen.”

He heard nothing, not even a gust of wind or groan of a branch. “Maybe you’re hearing things.”

“No. No, I’m su-” Harry turned left and stared intently at the thick foliage. “There.”

Still only hearing the sound of Harry’s voice, Louis relaxed and walked towards the area. “You’re just imagining things.”

“ _Louis!_ ”

“Calm your curly head, H,” he called over his shoulder as he moved to look in. “It’s all… fucked.”

“Lou,” Harry started to move forward but stopped when he noticed Louis’ body tense.

“Mate, I’m begging you, don’t move.” Louis voice was strained as he stared into the glowing red eyes he’d seen a dozen times. “Can you hear me?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Alright, listen. Nice and slow, I want you to step back and get the fuck out of here. Get Zayn and come back.”

“Are you mad?” Harry whispered harshly. “Like hell I’m gonna leave you here.”

“Haz, this isn’t the time to argue with me.”

Harry swallowed; Louis hadn’t called him by that nickname in years. “What is it? Maybe I’ve got something that-”

“You don’t. This isn’t anything we’ve ever gone up against. Harry, please,” Louis’ voice cracked ever so slightly. “Get out of here. Get Zayn. Walk back extremely slowly until you’re out of the clearing. Then, run like hell.”

Harry said nothing for a few moments. He stared at Louis’ back, unsure of what the right choice was. He couldn’t leave him here, but if leaving would save him, Harry couldn’t stay. “If you’re not okay when I get back- I swear to god, Louis…”

“Don’t you worry. You know this forest knows better than to mess with me. Now go.”

After another few seconds, Harry finally complied. Louis could feel when he was gone, his body tensing up again as he stopped pretending everything was okay. The only thought running through his mind was that he now regretted attending the Woodstick festival every summer. Maybe if he hadn’t, he would’ve heard the creaking of metal that Harry had tried to point out. Now he was paying the price, having to stay absolutely still unless he either wanted to be mauled or disintegrated.

Not even five minutes later, Louis heard his earpiece beep. He furrowed his brow as he tried to figure out what it was, having completely forgotten about it. When he finally realized it, he nearly slapped himself. Slowly he pressed his ear to his shoulder and waited for the connection.

“We’re fucking idiots.” Harry and Louis said at the same time.

“I blame panic.” Harry said. “I’m still in the forest, but I can’t reach Zayn.”

“Did you try Eleanor?”

“No. Hang on…” There was a series of beeps before a low hum filled their ears. “Can you at least tell me what we’re up against? Maybe I can sneak up on it.”

“Are you coming back?”

“Of course I am.” Harry sounded slightly confused, the thought of doing anything else clearly the farthest thing from his mind.

“Don’t get too close.” Louis warned. “This thing is blind, but it’s got great ears for movement.”

“Which is why you can talk normally?”

“Right. But if I move another inch, I’m as good as dead.”

“What-” A low beep interrupted Harry as they failed to make contact with Eleanor. The hum returned as he tried again. “What exactly is it?”

Louis let out a shaky breath. “Remember the last time we were at the shack?”

“Yeah.”

“Liz’s newest attraction, the wolf thing?”

“Uh, yeah, yeah. The thing you and Zayn made, right?”

“That’s the one.”

“What about it?”

Louis closed his eyes briefly in preparation for what he was about to say. “I’m staring right at its, thankfully closed, laser eyes.”

The line went so quiet, Louis thought Harry had hung up on him. The softest whisper of “shit” made him realize that Harry was probably just trying to take it all in. Louis tried to concentrate on the hum that would connect them to Eleanor, his heart sinking to his shoes when the failed connection beep sounded. He needed Harry to have his head in this, but he was afraid that if he pushed too hard Harry would freak out.

“Harry, I know it’s kinda weird, but mate, I’m a bit freaked out myself here.”

The impending doom of his best friend seemed to snap Harry out his shock. “Fuck, sorry, sorry… I’ll try them again.”

Louis let out a sigh of relief, glad he put his trust in the right place. But over and over, Harry failed to make contact, his angry muttering getting louder with each try.

“Lou, he’s not answering; neither of them are. We’re on our own.”

Louis gritted his teeth in annoyance; if Zayn was trying to think of some half-assed excuse or was ignoring them, he was gonna sick this metal wolf on him. “Well, what the fuck are we supposed to do?”

“I don’t know! Just- just hang on, okay?” Harry rubbed his temples, trying to think of a way out of this. “It’s made of metal, right? There’s no trap door? No off switch?”

“It’s not a robot, Harry; its just got a metal exterior. It’s a real creature, apparently.”

“Well, if it’s real,” Harry said through the sound of him rummaging through his backpack, “then its got a heart. And if it has a heart, I can shoot it.”

“It’s metal, though.” Louis countered. “Have you got anything strong enough?”

“I’ve got gnome bullets.”

Louis allowed himself the smallest of nods. “That’s probably our best chance. Maybe go for the eyes, too.”

“Right, I’ll try.”

“Laser eyes,” Louis muttered. “Who’s brilliant idea was that?”

Harry listened to Louis muttering as he loaded the rainbow colored gel bullets into his modified Nerf gun. His fingers trembled as he loaded it, and he knew it wasn’t from the cold. As calm as he tried to be, his body flashed back to the only other time they had to use these bullets— when Louis was nearly taken by the Jersey Devil. Now Louis was in trouble again, but this time Harry was virtually alone. The bullets filled with poisonous gnome vomit were his only shot against this creature- literally.

“You still with me, Harry?”

Harry blinked hard before rubbing his eyes and answering Louis’ worried voice. “‘M fine. Gonna go and try to get behind it. If it spots me, I’m gonna need you to be fast, alright?”

“I’ve got a couple of flash bombs in my pocket. Just- just be careful, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Harry swallowed and started his slow trek back to where he had left Louis and the creature. He could hear loud breathing that didn’t sound like it was coming from Louis. With their luck, the poison either wouldn’t work or wouldn’t be enough. Surprisingly, that wasn’t what Harry cared about at the moment. He was still trying to understand how the hell any of this was even happening. This was a creature that his friends had made up off the top of their heads in the back of the library when they should’ve been studying. Harry clearly remembered that day and how long they had spent making this thing unique and perfect, loudly clapping themselves on the back every time their online search results found nothing that could compare. There was no way the exact thing already existed, laser eyes and all. So what had happened?

There were quite a few explanations he could come up with, magic being the primary one. Witches, spells, curses, hexes— you name it and you could probably find it in Gravity Falls. But as far as he knew, neither Zayn nor Louis had done anything to really piss someone off that wasn’t a member of their friend group or their old high school principal. In any case, any sort of revenge plot against the boys would have been carried out sooner and more spectacularly than this. It was almost as if the monster was living in the woods, and Harry and Louis just happened to find its hideout. Regardless, that still didn’t explain how it became real in the first place. It didn’t make sense for anyone to want to bring Zayn’s drawings to life.

A few feet away from the spot, Harry slowed even more and nearly stopped when he remembered what had happened to them days ago. Was this the demon’s fault? Had they found out about Zayn’s creations while they were in his head and decided to use them against the boys?

“Where are you, Harry?” Louis voice sounded strained.

“Nearly there,” he breathed. “Once I take the shot, run like hell.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.”

Harry took a few more steps before speaking again. “I won’t miss.”

“You better not.”

“If I do, you can whack me.”

“We’ll be dead.”

“We’ll come back as ghosts then.”

Louis responded to Harry, but Harry didn’t know what he was saying; the pounding of his heart in his ears drowned out any other sounds. He probably wouldn’t even hear Pacifica if she screamed in his ear. He was terrified of missing the shot, whether it was to the heart or the eyes of the monster. The thought of leaving the forest alone made his stomach churn as he inched closer to the thicket. He really only had one shot if this was going to work; if he missed, it would probably be the end for both of them.

Slowly, Harry unzipped his boots and shoved them in his backpack, his socked feet silently sinking into the snow. He hissed at the cold, gripping the gun tightly before continuing on to sneak up behind the monster. Since Louis was the only one to see this creature in real life, Harry had no idea what to expect. He glanced down at the bright orange Nerf gun in his hands and wondered if it was enough. It was a stupid plastic toy- how was it going to save anyone? But Sophia had worked on it; it was the first weapon she’d ever modified for them when Liam accidentally caused a zombie/ghost uprising. Harry could still remember how the first shot ripped through three zombies. That, combined with the special bullets, had to be enough to save Louis. If it wasn’t… well, he didn’t want to even think about that possibility.

Harry got low to the ground and took long strides once he caught glimpses of silver in the white specked bushes. His gun was ready, and he could now see Louis’ terrified face. Palms sweaty, Harry put his finger on the trigger and aimed. In the blink of an eye, the bullet left the gun and lodged itself in the monster before exploding into a mess of guts and rainbows.

“Run!” Harry yelled at Louis, who was frozen to the spot, and had to dive to make sure he didn’t get hit with the poison. “Come on!”

The agonizing shrieks and screams of the monster sounded like metal scraping against itself. The sounds followed them as they ran as fast as they could out of the forest. They slipped and slid on the snow, Louis’ worn out sneakers failing to gain any traction while Harry’s socks did him no favors. Harry’s hand was squeezing Louis’ forearm so hard the latter thought it was going to fall off, but he didn’t care much; he’d rather lose circulation than be trapped with that thing for another second. Louis glanced back to make sure they weren’t being followed and regretted it instantly. Fumbling behind them was a broken and misshapen husk of the wolf, poison vomit and blood dripping from wherever its metal body was torn. Louis nearly fell over, his loss of balance propelling Harry to go even faster as the wolf moved conversely. Even with all the adrenaline and running, it got harder for Harry to stand the biting cold on his feet as the seconds progressed. But he couldn’t stop, not unless he wanted to get them both killed.

“My feet are fucking freezing!” He yelled.

Louis looked down briefly at his friend’s feet before glancing behind again. “Why the hell aren’t you wearing shoes??”

“Didn’t wanna make any noise!”

“Put them back on, you idiot!”

“Hey, I saved your life!”

“And now I’m returning the favor!”

Louis shoved Harry back into the thick of the forest, swinging them around the base of a tree before crouching to hide behind it. He could still hear the grinding of metal as the monster continued to attempt to track them, but Harry’s shot was too good; it’d be dead in a few minutes. They were both breathing heavily, Louis gripping the cold bark of the tree while Harry rested his back against it and closed his eyes. They still needed to get out of the forest and to Zayn’s to figure out what the hell was going on, but they could afford a short break to breathe and get Harry’s boots back on.

Or maybe they couldn’t.

As Harry pulled on his second boot, a loud, blood chilling screech filled the air. Louis watched in horror as the wolf, now almost completely red, stumbled into his view. He tugged on the sleeve of Harry’s jacket, beckoning his youngest friend to watch and make sure he wasn’t seeing things. Harry poked his head around the side of the tree and followed Louis’ gaze, inhaling sharply when he saw the wolf writhing in agony on the frosty ground. But that wasn’t even the worst part. As the wolf gave it’s last screams, a dark hunter green light momentarily obscured their vision. When they could see again, Harry and Louis were met with the sight of another shaped demon. They tensed, reaching for weapons, but it didn’t seem to know that they were there. It wasn’t one of the ones they had seen at Town Hall, but it was definitely part of their numbers. It was wearing a bolo tie with a camouflage slide, its body appearing to be fashioned from two different pyramids glued to each other. Louis didn’t know what the name for it was, but it didn’t matter once it started on its task.

The demon glowed as it hovered over the lifeless body of the wolf, pulling at the air like a mime. At first, it didn’t look like anything was happening, and the boys had half a mind to get out while they still could. But then the demon wasn’t pulling at the air anymore; a silver wisp started rising from the wolf, slowly elongating until the demon was holding it in its hands. Slowly, it pulled the wisp out until it was a large, thick ribbon. With a snap of its fingers, the demon got the substance folded up and neatly put away in its pocket.

“The soul,” Harry breathed out.

“What?” Louis whispered back but got no response as Harry’s eyes widened.

“Alright now! As fun as scaring the crap out of those kids was, I need the job finished.” The demon’s loud voice recaptured Louis’ attention. “This time I want them dead, understood?”

At first, Louis had no idea who exactly the demon was talking to. But then he saw the wolf get up. His heart nearly stopped before he realized that it wasn’t the same wolf. The one Harry had shot was still on the ground, but another had risen from the exact same spot, perfect, shiny, and new.

“They can’t have gotten too far,” the demon mused. “Hunt until they’re dead; they’ll never figure out how to get rid of you.”

As much as staying might have gotten them more information, Louis and Harry had heard enough to tell them that hanging around for even a second longer would certainly get them killed. Not even checking to see if Harry had tied his boot, they bolted, the icy wind biting at their faces as they stopped for nothing. The trees were large blurs as they ran through the forest, desperately looking for the first sign of the town. Every so often they spared a glance at each other to make sure they were still there, and Harry looked back to see if the monster was following them to distract himself from the fact that he was currently developing a nasty blister from his boot.

Louis let out a strangled noise as he caught sight of the bridge that connected this part of the forest to the rest of town. Harry let out a loud laugh, not at Louis, but in relief as he, too, saw it along with the junkyard. All they had to do was make it over the bridge and they’d be safe. The wood creaked under their feet as they continued their run; in fact, they ran all the way to Zayn’s door, crashing into it in lieu of knocking. Flustered and out of breath, they pounded on the door before realizing they had a key and letting themselves in. Luckily, Zayn’s family didn’t appear to be home, so there was no real reaction to the thundering boys until they found Zayn and Eleanor in the former’s room, apparently engrossed in a spread of documents.

“We’ve got news,” Harry nearly shouted as he leaned against the doorframe.

Zayn and Eleanor looked incredibly surprised at their entrance, taking a moment to stare at them before the latter spoke. “So do we, and ours is better.”

“I don’t doubt that, love, but I think ours is more important.” Louis pulled the beanie off of his head and wiped his face with it before plopping down on the carpeted floor in the middle of the room.

“What the hell happened to you two?” Zayn put down the papers he was holding and watched as Harry nearly collapsed onto the floor beside Louis and kicked his boots off.

“Got chased…”

“By what?”

“You wouldn’t believe us.” Louis answered Eleanor’s question with an amused smirk.

Zayn raised an eyebrow. “You both smell like vomit- magic vomit. What the fuck did you get yourselves into?”

Harry shook his head, indicating that he wasn’t going to be the one to explain.

Louis nudged him with his foot before shrugging off his backpack, lying on his back, and letting out a massive sigh. “A whole lot of magic shit.”

“That’s just about every day of our lives,” Zayn countered.

“It was the octahedron,” Harry said, still a little breathless. “Woosh! Snatched up the soul…”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Louis lifted his head, clearly bemused.

“The demon! It was a octahedron.”

“Hang on, you met another demon?” Eleanor sat up straighter and glanced at Zayn.

Harry nodded. “Octahedron; it’s a soul stealer.”

“How do you know that?”

Louis looked at Zayn seriously after sitting up. “That metal wolf we made came to life and it chased us down in the forest-”

“-and then it died. But it didn’t really-”

“-the octopus pulled out its soul, apparently, and then a brand new one cropped up right out of the other’s corpse.”

“Octahedron,” Harry corrected. “And then it said that we’d never figure out how to kill the wolf, so, like, I’m pretty sure it’ll keep regenerating as long as we kill it wrong.”

“Giving the demons massive amounts of souls because you and I brilliantly didn’t think of a way to kill it.”

The room was so quiet that the flap of a butterfly’s wing probably would’ve sounded like an explosion. Eleanor kept looking between the two boys on the floor, searching for an indication that they were joking. Zayn seemed frozen, his gaze fixed on his bed sheets. Harry looked at all of them, uncomfortable with the silence in this time of urgency. There was an unkillable monster in the forest that would both thrive and simultaneously give the demons their souls, fueling their seemingly limitless power. He thought that at least deserved a moderate scramble for information or a bit of panic.

“Is- is anyone gonna ask the obvious question?” Harry asked.

No one moved. Even the snow outside seemed to have stopped, wind dying in anticipation of the unspoken inquiry.

“Well, fine.” He pouted and crossed his arms. “I’ll do it then.”

Louis looked at him with something of an amused smile, wiggling his tired toes instead of offering up any help.

Harry huffed. “‘ _But Harry, how did Zayn’s drawings come to life?’_ Well, I’m glad you asked. It’s obviously-”

“Demonic curse.” Zayn interrupted.

Harry grumpily threw the nearest soft object at Zayn’s head, squinting a bit as it bounced off its mark. “If you were gonna say it all along, why did you wait for me to start??”

Unbothered, Zayn reached into the drawer of his bedside table, pulling out a stack of sketch books and loose pages of paper. “Thought I was just seeing things then.”

“You’ve seen one of your drawings before?” Eleanor asked.

He nodded as he quickly flipped through the pages. “I didn’t really think much of it. There are a lot of things in the forest we don’t know about, and I only saw it for a split second.” He passed the book to Eleanor, tapping on a small drawing in the upper right hand corner.

“Vampire toad?”

Zayn shrugged. “It was a doodle. You can only tell it’s a vampire by the eyes and the teeth, but it was night and a lot of things have red eyes. But now…”

“So, you’re telling me that your sketch books have been cursed this entire fucking time and we had no idea?” Louis pushed himself up with more force than necessary, gesticulating sharply and knocking over a stack of CDs.

“Looks like they’ve been using you to collect more souls.” Eleanor said as she looked carefully at the other doodles on the page. “Zayn’s right; there are a lot of things in the forest, and if any of them kill one of his creations, that’s another soul for the demons.”

“Does this mean… shit.” Harry mumbled and rubbed his face. “Every single thing you’ve drawn in those books is out there somewhere.”

“And they might not just be in Gravity Falls,” Zayn concluded. “How long have the demons really been following us?”

“That’s probably why they’ve never made themselves known- they’ve been building up their power.”

Louis stood up angrily. “I’m swear I’m gonna-”

“What are you gonna do?” Eleanor asked. “They’re demons; you’ve got nothing on them.”

“Well, we would if we could get that goddamn journal!” He snapped. “These bastards are using us to take over our town.”

“And probably the world,” Harry added.

“Then let’s stop them.” Eleanor said simply, handing Louis the stack of papers she had been holding since his arrival.

“What are you on about?”

“Our news,” Zayn said. “Not as adventurous as yours, but I think it’ll point us in the right direction.”

He had been surrounded by a different set of documents, each one with a colored border and official print. They were larger than normal sheets of paper, tucking together nicely when Zayn gathered them to pass to Harry. Louis and Harry mirrored each other, frowning as they scanned the documents to uncover their importance.

“Deeds?” Harry asked.

Eleanor nodded. “Every documented owner of every spot in Gravity Falls.”

“And Eleanor found family records for every family that lived here from 2011 to now, along with the census papers for the last century and a half. Compare 2012 to 2140.”

Harry and Louis lined up their papers, catching all the differences time made: the old Gleeful Used Cars lot was now the junkyard, the old junkyard had become the mayor’s house, the Northwest house moved across the town where the Gleeful factory used to stand, and many of the businesses had grown or disappeared. As Louis stared at the amendment to the Dusk 2 Dawn deed for the phantom second floor, something clicked in his head.

“Hang on,” he excitedly jabbed at the documents before flipping through his. “The census said that someone used to live in the old junkyard in 2012.”

“The earliest the deed goes was when Mayor Anton bought it, though.” Harry said.

“Yeah, but who buys a junkyard without significance?” Louis stopped flipping and triumphantly pulled out a paper. “Here! Fiddleford McGucket.”

“McGucket? As in Old Man McGucket? The town kook who ended up being the genius behind the interdimensional portal and helped Ford document everything in Gravity Falls? Wait…” Harry went a few pages back and pulled out a paper. “There was a Tate McGucket who owned a house on the lake. And guess who owned it until about twenty years ago?”

“Estelle McGucket,” Louis read quietly, “who then married Miles Anton…”

Silence fell upon the room again as they started to piece everything together. Their excitement started to build, threatening to bubble over at any second. This was it. The whole time, the mayor had been a relative of one of the key players in what had happened in Gravity Falls when both sets of Mystery Twins were here. She had purchased the junkyard where her ancestor lived and taken the demon journal that had been buried there by Dipper in order to keep it safe. But somewhere in between, the demons found her and took it for themselves. If only-

CRASH

The sound of the front door being blasted open caused them all to jump, their hearts in their throats as footsteps pounded down the hall and headed straight towards Zayn’s room.

“Did you lock the door??” Zayn asked frantically.

“Of course not,” Louis said shakily. “Anything that needs an unlocked door to get in isn’t the shit we should be afraid of.”

“People, you mean?” Eleanor asked; her voice was higher than usual as she clutched Zayn’s duvet in her hands.

“Yeah.”

“Lads! Lads, where the hell are you?” Niall’s voice boomed in the house, giving everyone cause to let out a sigh of relief.

“Where the hell are you lot?” Liam yelled.

“Zayn’s room.” Eleanor’s voice cracked slightly as she called out to them, her hand over her heart.

Liam, Niall, and Sophia suddenly appeared in the door frame, struggling with their simultaneous entry due to their overexcitement . It wasn’t until they managed to squeeze inside that the others could see that the trio were holding things: in Niall’s hands was a strange, bronze colored gun; Sophia’s, a box of labelled canisters; and Liam’s were clutching-

“THE JOURNAL!” Everyone crowded around the newcomers, all of them trying to take everything in while simultaneously wanting to look at the journal.

“Where the bloody hell did you find this?” Harry asked with a massive grin.

Liam beamed back at him, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet with barely contained glee. “It found me, actually.”

“What are you on about?” Louis asked, tugging the book from Liam’s hands.

“Went to meet these two at the museum. When we found the memory canisters, I opened my bag to put some in and saw it was just sitting in there waiting for me.”

“The journal was in your backpack?” Zayn asked, scooting closer to try and see more details of the carefully written text.

Liam nodded. “Weird, I know. Sophia’s gonna look at the security stuff and see if someone broke in to give it to me.”

“Did you read it?” Eleanor asked.

“Not yet. Wanted to save that for now.”

“And it’s not the only news,” Sophia said.

“Hopefully it’s about whatever that stuff is.” Eleanor said, referring to the items Sophia and Niall were holding.

“Memory canisters and a memory erasing gun used by the Society of the Blind Eye back when the Mystery Twins were here. These are all memories of the strange happenings from the residents of Gravity Falls.”

“Most are old,” Niall said. “But there are quite a few from the last forty years or so.”

“Okay, let’s break off and look at everything. Go through memories of anyone that could possibly do any good: friends, government officials, the Northwest’s, the Gleeful’s. The rest of us can examine the journal.” Zayn instructed as he took the book from Louis.

Sophia, Eleanor, Niall, and Louis went to go sort through the canisters in the living room, leaving Liam, Harry, and Zayn to pore over the journal. Harry and Liam each held a blacklight above the pages as Zayn flipped through the new journal, squinting through the odd purple haze in hopes of catching a hidden secret.

The journal started off with the missing pages from the original journals before moving into Dipper’s notes and accounts of events he experienced. It appeared to be centered around one particular demon— a yellow triangle named Bill. Like the others, Bill had a neck accessory (in his case, a black bow tie) and one eye. He also sported a black top hat that Dipper noted appeared to be part of his body. The general consensus about Bill was that he was a smooth talker that should never be trusted, given that he was the cause of Weirdmaggedon and plenty of other headaches. Although there were pages upon pages of helpful information, including the fact that Bill was unable to leave Gravity Falls during his reign and that demon deals were something to be avoided, the boys seemed to be at a loss for the biggest and most important piece of it. Right at the end of the book, a thick section of paper was stuck together, dried and cracked. Whatever ink had lived there was now a runny, illegible mess.

“Where is it?” Harry mumbled as he flipped through the pages, denial starting to set in.

“It has to be here,” Liam assured. “The sentence can’t stop with ‘I put the clues together to find-’”

Zayn shook his head in defeat. “This is it. The answer was on these pages. The liquid from the trash must have seeped into the ground and ruined part of the journal.”

“It’s gotta be a joke.” Harry frowned. “This whole damn town has to be one terrible joke! No way we did all of this and mysteriously got the journal for the explanation on how to get rid of demons to be gone!”

“We’re gonna have to go through it carefully, then. All we need to do is pick up on the clues and figure it out the way Dipper did.”

After what he’d been through today alone, Harry wasn’t in the same mindset as Liam and left the room to cool off. The latter sighed and picked up the book, determined to find something, _anything_ , on his own.

“I don’t see why this had to happen now,” he grumbled. “Could’ve waited another hundred years to take over the town.”

Zayn looked at Liam before reaching into his pocket. “They already waited long enough.”

“What are you on about?”

“Got my cipher this morning.” Zayn said as he handed his friend a small strip of paper.

**TEBK QEB MXOBKQP XOB XTXV QEB HFAP TFII MIXV**

When the parents are away the kids will play

Liam’s brow furrowed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Means the demons waited until Dipper and Mabel were out of the way before coming back. They knew that as long as the twins were alive, they’d never have Gravity Falls. So the answer in hidden somewhere in here, and we’re gonna find it and make them wish they had waited another century.”

Liam grinned, his eyes like crescents, as they went back to searching the book. They did so carefully, scanning line by line to make sure they didn’t miss a single word. As they looked, Sophia came in and hovered in the doorway.

“We got everything sorted. Lots of memories that could be useful, but we’ll have to go back to the museum of we want to watch them.”

“Watch them?” Zayn asked.

“Yeah. Apparently it’s like a video file, but the only way they can be viewed is through a special device. The room we found them in should have it. Wanna come?”

They nodded and followed her out, figuring they could multitask when they reached their destination. They regrouped, pulling Harry off of the couch before leaving. Huddling close together for warmth, the seven of them quietly walked through town, each of them trying to figure out their individual pieces of the mystery.

“Hey,” Sophia said suddenly.

“What?” Niall looked up, startled.

“You know what might be better than watching some memories?”

“Eating pizza and then hibernating until this shit blows over?” Louis shrugged.

“Uh… no. I was thinking more along the lines of actually talking to someone who was there.”

“It’s been over a hundred years,” Zayn commented. “Everyone who was there is dead. Unless you mean Pacifica.”

“No,” she said. “I’m talking about Lazy Susan.”

“Huh?”

“My boss, Liam. Crazy old bird who’s about a thousand years old.”

“I know who she is, Louis. I fix that goddamn pie rotator every other week. I was wondering how she could possibly help.”

“Like Louis said,” Niall started, “she’s old. Well over 100 and she was in Gravity Falls for both sets of Mystery Twins. Sophia’s right; she’s the only person still alive that could tell us anything.”

“Yeah, but _could_ she tell us anything?” Zayn asked. “She wasn’t exactly sane in her youth, was she? Can’t imagine she’s any better now. Being accidentally preserved in peanut brittle messes with a person.”

“Exactly,” Liam agreed.

“It’s worth a shot.” Eleanor said. “Just because she’s a bit off doesn't mean she doesn’t remember what happened.”

“Yeah,” Harry agreed. “I saw how many memory tubes she had. She saw a lot of things.”

“It’s not like the diner’s out of the way or anything,” Sophia said. “We can just stop by on our way to the museum.”

Niall shrugged. “Can’t do much harm.”

“Not unless she tries to give us food.”

They all agreed and made the appropriate turn to get to the diner. When they arrived, they found Lazy Susan with a customer and decided to take seats at the end of the counter while they waited. For a moment, they actually eyed the day’s specials before turning to find their neighbor drinking a cup of ranch and slowly pushing away the menu in silent horror.

“Hiya, Louis, Pie Boy, kids.” Susan approached them from the opposite side of the counter, pronouncing Louis name like Lewis and keeping up with the nickname Liam hated.

“Hello, Susan.” Harry said warmly. “Could we have a word with you?”

“Sure! But you gotta order something or fix that darn pie rotator.”

Liam shot up out of his seat, moving the fastest he ever had in his life. “Just point me to the tools, ma’am.”

The others breathed a sigh of relief. Even ordering the water here was risky and cost money; according to Lazy Susan, you were paying for quality minerals, which they were pretty sure was just dirt and pebbles.

“So, what can I do you for?”

“We were wondering what you could tell us about demons.” Niall said.

“Or specifically one named Bill.”

Susan stared at Harry for a long while with her good eye before it slowly traversed to look at them all. They all stared back at her, their unease filling the air. Suddenly, Susan laughed and made a shooing motion with her hand.

“I don’t know any Bill’s silly!”

The group let out a collective sigh; Eleanor narrowed her eyes at the ancient woman.

“That’s… not possible.” Zayn said warily.

“Small guy, yellow triangle, stupid top hat; ring a bell?” Louis asked as he crossed his arms. 

“Triangles don’t wear hats.”

“Ugh, listen,” Sophia interjected, laying out her hands on the counter in an attempt to focus the old woman’s train of thought. “We don’t have time for this. We know you were here for Weirdmaggedon. You had to have seen Bill at least once.”

“You obviously survived it, so you have to know something about how Dipper and Mabel beat him.” Eleanor concluded.

“Oh, you kids and your imaginations. Never mind all that.” This time, Susan’s words were not as bright and cheery.

“Susan, please. We need your help.”

“Yeah,” Niall agreed with Harry. “Something’s happening, and if we don’t find out exactly what happened, we could be facing something way worse.”

Susan glanced around the diner before leaning forward. “Meet me behind the diner in one minute.”

The group watched as she slowly backed away, eventually running into the back wall. She looked around in surprise before glaring at said wall and walking away.

“If I ever get encased in peanut brittle, please don’t let me come out.”

Everyone nodded in response to Louis’ request and stepped away from the counter. On their way out, they grabbed Liam, who was smudged with grease and still tinkering with the pie rotator.

“You think she’ll have anything useful to say?” Harry asked.

“Who knows?” Liam shrugged. “But if she’s willing to talk, we may as well hear her out.”

“We’ve gone off weirder things before,” Zayn commented.

They didn’t have to wait long for Lazy Susan to join them. She kept looking over her shoulder, as if she was making sure she wasn’t being followed. It was one of the few sane things they’d ever seen her do. Even the boys continuously forgot that they were most likely being watched.

“What did you mean when you said ‘never mind all that’?” Niall asked immediately, curiosity overpowering their previous priorities.

“Well, that’s our town response for Weirdmageddon. We don’t _want_ to talk about it, so we don’t.”

“It’s been long enough, hasn’t it?” Liam crossed his arms. “We need to know what happened so we can be prepared.”

Susan shifted uncomfortably before giving a fairly convincing grin, the corners of her mouth only twitching a bit in response to the gravity of her memories. “Oh, you know how crazy kids can be, what with their monster parties that destroy the town and the imprisonment of all the citizens to make a human throne.”

Blue eyes met brown and green as the group glanced between each other, confusion plastered across their somewhat terrified faces. Just how much more of this town was being kept a secret from them? It was almost as if with every day they moved closer to solving one mystery, another, a far more sinister tale was waiting to take its place.

“But those Pines kids helped destroy them all,” she added, waving her hand as if she was wiping away all of the troubles the small town had faced.

“How?”

“Dunno!” She replied brightly. “I had to open the diner for the dinner rush.”

Niall sighed. “Right, well, what else have you got for us, then?”

Susan reached into the pocket of her apron and pulled out a piece of paper. “A unicorn came in the other day and told me to hand this to you.”

“A unicorn?” Eleanor asked; she didn’t doubt the woman because unicorns weren’t real— she knew they were and had the scars to prove it— but because unicorns didn’t exactly like people let alone diners in the middle of town.

“A secret unicorn.”

“Right…” Louis looked between the others warily. “Did the unicorn say anything else?”

“She said she’d meet you soon and that you’d better be ready for the puppy party of the century.”

“Oh lord…” Harry breathed out.

“Sounds… brilliant,” Liam concluded. “Can I see it?”

Susan nodded, handing him the paper before rummaging in her apron and pulling out another one.

“Another cipher.” Zayn observed.

“Is this one for me?” Liam asked.

Lazy Susan nodded. “And this one came in a while ago.”

Eleanor took the second paper. “Who is this one from?”

“A librarian.” Susan replied. “But I can’t say any more. The diner needs me.”

As if on cue, they heard the sound of a window being smashed. All heads turned to see a large man wrestling with a goat, rolling around as they fought for the waffle stuck to the latter’s horn. When they looked back to speak with Lazy Susan, they found that she had backed herself up against the wall of the back of the diner in an attempt to hide in a small, shadowy patch before slowly scooting away. It seemed like an eternity had passed when she finally reached the corner and disappeared.

“Remind me to move the fuck out of here after this,” Niall muttered.

They all stared at the spot for a moment more before realizing what had just occurred.

“So, what does your cipher say?” Sophia asked.

“Cipher… Oh, right!” Liam shook his head slightly before looking down at his paper; he immediately recognized the handwriting as the same as the others.

**SV DZHM’G GSV HGILMTVHG LMV**

“Atbash,” Harry and Zayn said at the same time.

“Can you figure it out?”

Zayn let out a short laugh. “Course I can. Just give me a second.”

He looked at it while simultaneously searching Niall’s backpack for a pen. By the time he had gotten it out, he had already decoded the message and messily transcribed it, using his hand as a backing for the paper.

“Here we are. Not exactly the most comforting message…”

**SV DZHM’G GSV HGILMTVHG LMV**

He wasn’t the strongest one

“Who’s he?” Sophia asked.

“Has to be Bill, doesn’t it?” Niall shrugged. “Someone’s warning us that what we’re facing is worse than anything they ever did.”

“We’re fucked.”

“Yeah, probably.”

Liam frowned at Louis and Eleanor. “We’ll be fine; we always are. El, what did she give you?”

“Oh, this?” She held up the scrap of paper Susan had given her. “It’s like a riddle or something.”

“What’s it say?” Harry asked.

“ _Not with my face but with my name. She works for the secrets and is to blame._ ”

“Weird…” Zayn frowned and rubbed his beard. “It’s not a cipher. Doesn’t seem to fit the tone of the other messages, either.”

“Hang on.” Harry had been hovering behind Eleanor and was now looking at the note, his brow furrowed. “I know that handwriting.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, yeah… I know who wrote this.”

“Out with it then.” Louis pressed.

“Liz.”

“Liz? Liz Pines?” Liam asked.

“The very same. She’s signed our checks for years; I think I’d recognize her handwriting by now.”

“But she’d never cared about all this supernatural stuff,” Niall countered. “Why would she be writing this?”

“Cuz she knows something,” Zayn said. “Remember how weird she got after she saw the ciphers?”

“I knew she was hiding something.” Louis said excitedly. “We have to go talk to her!”

“What about the memories?” Sophia asked.

“We can split up.” Eleanor suggested. “Some of us can go on and the rest can go back to the shack and question Liz.”

Everyone agreed to the plan‒ Louis, Liam, and Eleanor would go to the shack, while Zayn, Harry, Niall, and Sophia would continue on to the Hall of the Forgotten to view the memories. The went their separate ways, assuring each other that they’d keep in touch if anything went wrong. The museum group quickly made their way through the exhibits and into the eye room. Once there, Sophia pushed in the rock artifact with the central eye, opening the secret entrance in the fireplace. They made their way to the Hall of the Forgotten, Zayn and Harry marveling at the piles of memories that had been left behind. They didn’t look like they had been touched in decades.

“Here we go,” Niall walked up to what appeared to be a small, old-fashioned TV. In front of it was a space just big enough to place the memory capsules, the word “insert” engraved on the gilded surface.

“So we just pop it in, then?”

“Looks like it.” Sophia examined the capsules she had, choosing one labeled “Jacqueline Jimenez Memories”.

“I’m gonna look over the journal if that’s alright.” Zayn said as he rummaged through his bag.

Harry nodded. “Let us know if you find anything.”

They sat down and watched the memory of who they now recognized as a former news reporter for Gravity Falls while Zayn sat not too far away with the journal. Memory after memory, they tried to find some clue as to how the demons got here or how to stop them, but all they were getting was frustration. They watched citizens undergo countless mind wipes after seeing the Hide Behind, ghouls, the Dumpster Troll, and the Barf Fairy, but nothing truly sinister seemed to be happening.

“Let’s skip the townspeople for now,” Niall suggested. “Anyone important in here?”

“From anytime recent?” Harry asked as he stared at the ceiling. “I don’t think 2012 is doing us much good.”

“There are a few,” Sophia said as she rummaged through her box. “The memory wipes stopped after the twins shut down the Society of the Blind Eye, but they suddenly started again not too long ago.”

“Let me guess; about a year after Mayor Anton got elected?” Niall waited for Sophia’s nod before nodding himself. “Figured as much.”

“I just grabbed the whole box from that one year,” she said. “There’s someone in here named Linda Corduroy.”

Harry frowned. “Name’s familiar. Think it was a friend of the twins or something.”

“Yeah, Wendy.”

He wagged his finger at Niall. “Right, right. That’s the one.”

Niall leaned over to look at the capsule that Sophia was holding. “You said Linda, right?”

“Yeah.”

“I think she’s the mayor’s secretary.”

“Pop it in,” Harry said as he drummed his hands on his stomach. “Gotta be something useful in there.”

While waiting for Sophia to ensure there was only one canister, Harry and Niall could faintly hear Zayn murmuring as he read. If they concentrated hard enough, they could make out what he was saying. Words and phrases like “he won’t stop touching it”, “fidgety”, “why does he even need one of them”, and “Gideon” were heard, but they meant little to them at the moment. When Sophia finally placed the memory in the slot, their attention was refocused, ears metaphorically closing off their friend as they turned to the screen.

The first thing they noticed was that Linda wasn’t strapped to the chair. She seemed more worried than scared and kept looking around, an indication that several other people were present in the room.

“Linda Corduroy,” A woman’s voice came from off-screen, her tone as professional as if she was about to read Linda her rights. “In compliance with the new law of Gravity Falls, do you understand that you are under no obligation to undergo a memory wipe?”

“I want this,” the memory insisted. “I need to unsee everything.”

“Very well. Tell us what you saw.”

“There was a book on the land Estelle bought for her new house. She had it in her office for safekeeping, but she would never tell me what it was no matter how many times I asked. She was out for a meeting this morning, so I just looked at it for a moment, you know, flipping through the pages. And there was this one page written in another language, so I tried to figure it out by reading it out loud.” It was now that Linda started to show an inkling of fear. “But as I got to the end, the room started shaking. I thought maybe it was an earthquake, but when I finished, the book glowed and it was like a rainbow exploded.”

“Did you see anything else?”

She nodded. “Shapes. Glowing shapes.. There were more than a dozen of them flying around, screaming and laughing. There was a big one, like a ball made up of triangles, and it thanked me before they all just disappeared.”

The memory went quiet then, so quiet that they wondered if somehow it had messed up. Linda kept looking around at the unseen people, her face growing more terrified as the seconds passed.

“What did I do?” She asked shakily.

The woman’s voice came back. “There’s nothing to worry about, Linda. You’ll forget this soon enough.”

Over the sound of the memory gun being readied, they heard two people speak.

“Take care of the book. Study it and make sure those pages cease to exist. Figure it out and call us when you’ve got something.”

“I’ll burn them,” a different woman’s voice responded. “Eyes on the mayor and the town. If it’s what we think, you’ll have to get the entire organization ready.”

As this woman spoke, Harry and Zayn lifted their heads, the latter even standing up to rejoin the others.

“You two okay?” Niall asked, looking away from the scene of Linda getting her memory wiped.

“She sounds a bit familiar.” Harry said slowly.

“You know her?” Sophia asked.

Zayn nodded. “Can’t forget.”

Harry frowned before the realization hit him. “Shit… she’s the one, yeah?”

“Who is she?”

Zayn stared at the screen as if daring the woman to speak again.

“Uh, lads?” Niall stood up to make Zayn look at him. “Who the hell is she?”

“She was the receptionist at Town Hall,” Zayn said through gritted teeth.

“Wait,” Sophia stood up as well. “Isn’t she the one that saved Harry’s life?”

Harry nodded as he looked up at Zayn. There was no doubt in his mind that his friend was reliving that day.

“So she obviously knows about the demons and how to protect herself.” Niall said. “We have to find her.”

“We don’t even really know who she is.” Harry said as he slowly rose to stand. “Only clues were a first name and where she works, but none of us are going back there.”

“I’ll go,” Sophia offered.

“Like hell you will.”

Niall started chewing on the sides of his fingernail. “I’ll go with her.”

“No,” Harry said sharply. “No one is going in there until we figure out how to kill the demons.”

Before Niall could respond, their earpieces beeped. They all connected, not noticing that Zayn had gone back to the journal.

“You guys alright?” Liam asked.

“We’re fine,” Niall answered. “Just piecing things together.”

“Well, you’ve had more luck than us.” Louis said grumpily.

“What d’you mean?”

“The shack is boarded up.” Eleanor said in reply to Harry. “We got there and there was no one in. Liz changed the locks and everything. We’re heading over to the museum right now.”

“We could use the help.” Sophia said. “I think we’re finally getting somewhere.”

“Where’s Zayn?” Liam asked.

The trio glanced over at him; he was pacing and tapping at his neck just under his adam’s apple. “He’s here. Just looking over the journal for the millionth time.”

“Found anything?”

“Not sure, let me-”

There wasn’t even a chance for any of them to glance at Zayn again before the room started to shake. In any other circumstance, they may have just attributed it to an earthquake, but with all they had just heard, they knew this was no coincidence. Harry and Niall grabbed for weapons in their pockets and backpacks while Sophia pulled one of the machine gun-like Super Soakers she had strapped to her back. Zayn panicked, bolting for his backpack, which he had left on the other side of the room. The other three barely had time to get into their backs-in formation before the room thundered and strobed like a unicorn rave.

“Lads,” Louis’ voice came out shaky. “What the hell is happening?”

“They must have been watching us.” Harry responded. “They’re coming.”

“We have to get out,” Sophia said, pushing her arm a little harder against Niall, who was shaking as he tried to stand his ground. “We’ll be outnumbered.”

“I don’t get it,” Niall said. “It doesn’t make sense.”

“It doesn’t matter!” Liam was clearly running, his tone conveying fear. “Get the hell out of there, _now_.”

“Zayn,” Niall breathed and whipped around to find his best friend. “Zayn, what did you do??”

The artist was shoving the journal in his backpack and getting out his weapons. “Not now, Niall! They’re right; we have to leave.”

Harry, Sophia, and Niall started running to him, an escape plan forming in their heads, when they were stopped by a large fissure that suddenly appeared in front of them. Niall grabbed the back of Harry’s jacket, pulling him back just in time. The fissure started to widen, separating them from Zayn. And then the demons came.

The hall echoed with cackles and screeches, the lights glowing brighter and strobing faster as a half dozen shaped demons swirled around the room. The trio tried to ignore them for just a moment- it was all they needed to brace themselves to jump over the fissure and get to Zayn.

“What’s happening?” Eleanor nearly screamed. “Hurry, you two!”

“They’re here,” Sophia said, her voice cracking.

“We’re nearly there,” Louis said breathlessly. “Just hang on.”

“We don’t have time, Lou.” Harry said. “We’ve-”

Harry was cut off just as he was about to run and jump to Zayn. The loudest, highest, and most ear piercing sound any of them had ever heard surged through their earpieces, causing them to wince and yank them out. Harry fell to his knees while Sophia, Niall, and Zayn grabbed their heads.

“Go without me!” Zayn’s pained scream cut through all the other noises.

“No!” Niall screamed back.

“I’d listen to him if I were you.” The nasally sound of an octagon speaking interrupted them. The demons then stopped moving and hovered over them, their glows almost blinding. “Save yourself kid.”

In the blink of an eye, the octagon screamed and began to contort; Sophia had shot him with a high powered blast of sage-infused blessed water and was now daring the other demons to do something. A cone, sphere, and decagon, however, challenged her.

“Sorry, sweetheart, we don’t have time for games today.” The cone snapped its fingers and lifted Sophia into the air, her gun flying across the room and shattering against the rock wall.

“Sophia!”

“Not so fast, kid!” The sphere swooped down and engulfed Harry mid-run, trapping him inside.

“What the fuck! Get me out of here!” He kicked and stabbed, but the sphere didn’t even flinch.

“That just leaves you…”

The decagon dived to attack Niall, but before it could reach him, it disintegrated. Zayn stood triumphant, ready to take down the others. “Ready, Niall?”

The blond nodded, pulling out his Super Soaker as well. “Whenever you are.”

No longer having the element of surprise, the two unoccupied demons flew around, dodging the blasts from Niall and Zayn while the other two struggled to keep Harry and Sophia confined. Harry realized that the louder he yelled, the more it hurt the sphere, and Sophia was busy propelling her boots into the cone’s eye. Bombs were flying, of both the sage and F variety, the walls and floor of the hall covered in powder and soaked with water. Zayn was still trapped, every now and then yelling for Niall to get out. The latter refused.

“The others are coming for us, Zayn! Don’t worry!”

“They’re not gonna make it! Just go!”

“I told you I’m staying here! I’m not leaving without you!”

Niall then hit one of the demons right where it’s chest would’ve been. It shrieked and grabbed at its ascot. the edges singed and sparking. Zayn nearly dropped his weapon as he watched it howl and writhe; all they needed was one more.

“ENOUGH!”

The last demon shouted; an energy surge shook the room, making the cone drop Sophia to the floor. She hit the ground with a loud crack and lay motionless. Harry yelled out for her so loudly that the sphere nearly collided with a wall to make him stop. Niall and Zayn froze, staring at her body, until Niall saw her arm moving- she was reaching for her other gun.

“What’s wrong?” Niall taunted in a bide for time. “Can’t handle us as well as you thought you could?”

The demon laughed. “You’re no threat to me.”

“Big mistake on your part,” Zayn said as he prepped his gun to shoot.

But the demon didn’t look afraid; instead, it continued laughing. The sound grew until it filled the room, shaking them so much that they dropped their weapons. A few more seconds and they would no longer be able to stand. “The game’s over, Creator. You know too much.”

Zayn’s face then conveyed the purest horror. He realized that the demon had been truthful; Niall was no threat to it, but he was. And that’s when Zayn knew he had figured it out.

He only had a few seconds to get this right. He surveyed the room for a moment: Sophia was still painfully getting a grip on her gun; Harry was still shouting in the, now annoyed, sphere; and Niall, like Zayn, was still trying to keep his balance as the laughing continued. In an instant, Zayn lunged for his backpack, throwing it over the gaping fissure at Niall. The demon simultaneously flew straight at him, growing larger and glowing brighter until he could hold Zayn in the palm of his hand. Niall hardly had time to react to Zayn’s actions before he was screaming at the fact that the demon was clutching Zayn so tight he could hardly breathe.

“Let him go!”

“Don’t be too hasty now,” the demon held Zayn’s struggling body over the fissure, threatening to drop him in.

“Don’t!” Harry roared; tears were welling up in his eyes as he helplessly watched.

The shaped entity stared Niall down, thinking he was the only one who would try anything. “One wrong move and your friend’ll have a nice eternal summer home.”

Niall’s mind raced, trying to think of someway to get them out of this. If he reached for his gun, there would be no point- Zayn would be long dead by the time he got it. But he could see Sophia nearly ready to shoot; she just needed a few more seconds.

“I’ll give you whatever you want. Just give me Zayn back.”

“Bargaining?” The demon laughed. “That’s cute. But you better hurry and get to acceptance; I hear the rest of the stages are a doozy.”

The words made Harry and Niall’s blood run cold, but neither of them had the opportunity to do much else before Sophia was shakily on her feet and pointing her gun at the demon. She shot, and the octagonal menace dropped Zayn like a sack of potatoes. Niall ran and dove to roll with him to the other side of the fissure but slid across the rock floor empty handed. He didn’t even notice he was bleeding- he was too focused on the fact that the cone had somehow gotten to Zayn before him while its fellow demon burst into flames.

“No more wasting time!” He shrieked and turned to the sphere. “The mission was grab and go, and we’ve already grabbed.”

Every time the cone spoke, it flung Zayn around, disorienting him. Niall tried to get back up, but the pain in his side was too much to bear. Sophia was down again, her energy spent on her failed attempt to save Zayn.

“What should I do with this one?” The sphere asked in reference to Harry. “Kill him?”

“May as w-”

“Harry!” Zayn managed to choke out his friend’s name; he had just succeeded in freeing his arms from the cone’s grip. “You have to get the-”

The cone squeezed Zayn, cutting him off. He started grasping at his throat, almost clawing at it as he stared down Harry. The problem was that Harry was too panicked to understand.

“You’re killing him!”

“Let him go!”

The demons laughed, the cone glowing brightly as he widened the fissure. The room started to shake again, the strobing returned, and a heat like a preview to hell surrounded them. The cone then started to descend into the fissure, taking Zayn with it. At first it went slowly before picking up speed, almost as if it was fueled by Niall and Harry’s screams for Zayn. The oldest boy tried to grab on to something but soon realized that there was no escape; if he wanted his boys to get out alive, he’d have to go. But that didn’t mean he had to be resigned to it.

Still being squeezed, he couldn’t say anything, but he continued to motion to his throat. He even went so far as to slap the area where his neck met his chest, desperately trying to tell them what he knew- the reason he was being taken in the first place. Just before disappearing into the earth, Zayn let out a strangled scream. Fire surrounded the room as the laughter crescendoed; Harry could no longer see Zayn or the demon.

“ZAYN!” He let out a scream so painful that the demon couldn’t bear it. It practically exploded, dropping Harry to the ground.

Then the room went silent, flames, fissure, demons, and Zayn gone. Sophia was unconscious, and Niall was in more than just physical pain, his face buried in the crook of his elbow as blood seeped through his jeans and stained the floor. Harry sobbed, his fingers clawing at the ground as if to reopen the fissure and launch himself into it- anything to get Zayn back. But the lights did not come back, the room stayed still, and the echo of the demon’s laugh rang in their heads as if mocking the loss of their brother.


	2. Chapter 2

Eleanor tapped her highlighter against her chin, frowning down at her notes. The boys were asleep on her bed, Niall and Harry on top of the overlap to prevent further injury; Sophia was still in the hospital. They had been pretty much in this position since Zayn was taken, all but Eleanor too sad or injured to carry on. She loved Zayn - everyone did - but she also knew that the boys weren’t in the right mindset to even attempt to look for him. It was now her job to get the ball rolling so things would be ready when they were.

Right now, the only thing she was sure of was that she needed to talk to Liz. The latter had written them a cryptic riddle before disappearing just prior to Zayn’s kidnapping, and it was only after everything happened that Eleanor had taken the time to look at it closely.

_Not with my face but with my name. She works for the secrets and is to blame._

It was clear to her now that Liz had a sister, but she needed more information. She had a feeling that the missing Pines siblings were the key to ending this and getting Zayn back.

As quietly as possible, Eleanor took one of the boy’s backpacks and Sophia’s guns and left her house. She didn’t really expect to run into any trouble—she had concluded that a part of the demon’s reasoning for taking Zayn was to put the boys out of commission, so they wouldn’t be anticipating any more snooping—but she wanted to make sure she was prepared. She didn’t have too much to go on, but she was gonna try her best to piece everything together. The boys hadn’t been much help, but she hadn’t expected them to be considering what had happened. All they were able to tell her was that Zayn had figured out how to get rid of the demons for good, and that was why they had taken him. It was assumed that the answer was in the journal, as Zayn had been reading it before being kidnapped, but Eleanor would rather find him than sit around reading.

The first thing she noticed when she made it to the shack was that the windows were dark- it looked almost exactly like it had when they had come yesterday. Undeterred, Eleanor approached the house and knocked. The land remained silent. Frustrated and thinking about the boys, she kicked the door hard, the sound of wood splitting filling the air. But, as there was still no response, Eleanor took the chance to therapeutically beat something and busted the door in.

Panting, she entered the shack and looked around, fingers grazing over the counter as she passed. No one came to confront her, no wood squeaked under movements that weren’t hers; she was alone and it made her uneasy. “Liz?”

No response.

“Fucking hell…”

Eleanor continued up the stairs, hoping maybe Liz had decided to go with the mystery of the town and leave something for them to find. She would’ve settled for a family picture- anything to give her a push in the right direction. She flipped through books and searched drawers, but came up with nothing. Most of the items in the shack were related to the fake exhibits, and the stuff that wasn’t just looked like junk. As she made her way to the attic, Eleanor’s earpiece beeped and she nearly regretted answering it.

“Where the bloody hell are you??” Louis voice was a mix of panicked, tired, and out of breath. The sound of jingling in the background caught her attention.

“Do you have Bruce?”

“Eleanor!”

“I’m fine! I’m fine, Louis, you don’t have to worry.”

“I don’t have to _worry?_ ” He sounded like he had slowed down to a jog. “You fucking left while we were asleep! You went out _alone_ while fucking _demons are after us!_ ”

“For god’s sake, Lou, I had to. None of you lot are in any shape to be anywhere. If I can do it, then why not?”

He was quiet for a moment. “You should’ve told me. I’m fine to come with you. Where are you?”

“You’re not fine. Zayn’s gone; there’s no way you’re ready just yet.”

“Someone has to be.”

“Yeah, me.” Eleanor continued walking through the shack, glancing at picture frames and stopping to check the calendar on the wall. “Go back to my house; I’ll be back just as soon as I find Liz.”

“So you’re at the shack?”

“Louis, no.”

“I’ll be there in a bit. Maybe Bruce can get Liz’s scent.”

Eleanor sighed; she knew there was no use trying to argue. Louis was the most stubborn of the bunch, so it didn’t surprise her too much that he was on his way. They talked while he made his way over to the shack, mostly about Liz and the secret sister. She noticed that when the subject of Zayn came up, Louis didn’t say his name or anything direct. He was handling Zayn’s absence by not talking about it, holding his breath whenever a single word got too close to the subject. Eleanor knew he wasn’t ready to keep investigating, but there wasn’t anything she could really do to stop him. Louis’ excuse was that Harry and Niall were not only injured but had witnessed the abduction, so they were clearly in no shape to do anything other than what they were currently doing- sleeping and occasionally crying. Liam had been with Louis, but the oldest boy was insistent that Liam be left out of this for once as Liam always took the brunt of serious situations. This time, Louis asserted, it was his turn.

So when he arrived at the shack, the pair took the long-haired Goldendoodle around the house to sniff but came up empty despite their care. Not knowing where to go, they wandered through town, a voice in the back of their minds telling them that Town Hall was their best bet. But with what had happened there, they knew that if the demons didn’t get them, the others surely would.

“Did the note say anything else?” Louis asked quietly.

“About the sister thing?”

“Yeah.”

Eleanor pulled out the paper from her coat pocket. “She works for the secrets, so that could be anything. And apparently, she’s to blame for all of this. Maybe she’s the one sending you the ciphers.”

He frowned and gently tugged Bruce’s leash to keep him from attacking a lawn gnome that may very well have been real. “I thought it was the mayor.”

“But she’s possessed,” she countered, “Although, Z- um, Rosa told you all that there were two authors, right?”

He nodded.

“Maybe Pines is one and the mayor was the other.”

Louis was quiet for half a minute before his head perked up. “Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, she has to be!”

Eleanor smiled at his excitement. “Why?”

“At the shack, we showed the ciphers to Liz and she said that the handwriting looked like hers on painkillers-”

“Uh, okay…”

“-and then after she looked at them again she got weird and mysterious. We knew she was hiding something; it must have been the moment she realized it was her sister’s handwriting!”

“If she knew it was her sister, why didn’t she just say so?”

Louis shrugged. “No one knew she had one. Maybe she needed to make sure first.”

“Well, if she works for “the secrets”, then I can understand.”

“You don’t think it’s the Society of the Blind Eye, do you?”

She shook her head. “No. There are no reports of it ever returning after it was disbanded. But maybe you’re on the right track. Someone was using the memory wiping gun. If we figure out who that was-”

“We find Zayn.”

Louis’ voice was hard, his tone serious. Eleanor nodded and held on to Bruce’s leash as well, helping Louis keep control. “I think you know where we have to go.”

He sighed, flipping off Town Hall as they passed it. “Harry and Niall can’t tell us what they saw just yet.”

“And neither can Sophia.”

“We have to go to the Hall of the Forgotten, don’t we?” Louis grimaced as Eleanor nodded solemnly. “Yeah, I was dreading that.”

**> >>>>**

“We just have to snap out of it is all,” Liam said to the ceiling. “Not too hard. Just… just gotta go jump in the lake or something. That should do it.”

No one responded, as the only other people in the room were asleep. Niall was curled up on one side of Liam, careful to lay on the not injured side of his body, while Harry had his head on Liam’s shoulder and was hugging the latter’s right arm. Liam had woken up to find Louis, Eleanor, and Bruce gone, but a quick call had reassured him that they were alright and just trying to finish what had been started. It made Liam feel guilty; here he was asleep while god knows what was happening to Zayn. Wallowing wasn’t going to help- at least, it wouldn’t help Zayn. But Liam also had other boys to worry about, and right now they needed to sleep. Anything was better than being awake, and he didn’t dare leave them alone without telling them he’d be leaving. But they needed to find Zayn. The faster they started looking, the faster they’d find him. And that’s why Liam was conversing with the house. Before he could speak to it again, however, he received a call to his earpiece.

“Liam?”

“Soph!” He struggled to keep his voice down. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Broken arm and leg, but it’s nothing really. Listen, I found something.”

“About Zayn?”

“No, but something useful nonetheless. My parents brought my laptop, so I was able to look at the security footage from your house.”

“Really?” The excitement in Liam’s voice nearly woke Harry. “What’d you see?”

“Well, first of all, the journal was left at your house well before you found it. Someone went up to your back door with a bag and broke in. They weren’t in there long, but when they came out, the bag was gone.”

“My backpack was in the kitchen.”

Sophia hummed. “And the back door leads right into it, explaining why they were in and out so fast.”

“Did you see who it was?”

“Not at first; hood was up and they kept their face down. But they went back for that bag. They must have realized they left it and in their haste forgotten to put their hood back up. Took me a bit to get a good screen cap, but there’s no doubt- it’s Liz.”

“Liz?” Liam nearly shouted. “Are you telling me Liz had the journal this whole time?”

“Dunno, it’s hard to say. Only she would know, so I suggest you find her.”

“Louis and Eleanor are out now.”

The line was silent for a few seconds before Sophia spoke. “How are they doing?”

“Not good,” he sighed. “But they’ve been asleep for most of the time, so I suppose they’re doing better than expected.”

“When I get out, I’ll meet up with El so Louis can get back to you guys. We’ll do whatever we can.”

Liam smiled and when he spoke his voice was warm. “I appreciate that, love. But we can’t just sit around. He’s our brother; we have to find him. Once Harry and Niall wake up, I’ll see what they want to do, but I know I have to keep going and I think Louis knows that, too.”

“Well, whatever you do, I’ll hobble along beside you.”

“Absolutely not,” he said crossly before his smile betrayed his voice. “You’re getting a wheelchair, and we’re gonna beat Tommo to the answers.”

Liam was sure that Sophia fondly rolled her eyes at him before the doctor came in and they had to disconnect. As he lay on Eleanor’s bed, Liam knew one thing- they had to find Liz. At first, the search was done out of suspicion, but now she was their only lead and they’d be idiots to not follow it. Somehow, Liz had gotten her hands on the demon journal and didn’t deem the situation safe enough to just outright give it to them. Then there was still the mystery of the unicorn Lazy Susan had spoken to. Liam didn’t actually believe it was a real unicorn, but whatever, or whoever, it was had come into contact with Liz at some point. If they could find the unicorn, they’d find his boss.

As carefully as he could, Liam tried to get out of bed. The challenge was that Harry had quite the grip and didn’t appear to be letting go anytime soon. It would be the perfect excuse for Liam to just lay back down and let the sadness consume him again, but the knowledge that Zayn was counting on them spurred him to gently pull Harry’s hands off of the arm in question and tumble out of bed. He looked around, noticed that Niall’s backpack was gone along with Louis’, and assumed Eleanor had taken it. Liam picked up Zayn’s and took out the sixth journal, glaring at it before tossing it in his bag. He’d deal with the book once they found Liz.

“Where’re you goin’?” Liam turned to see Harry propped up on his good arm, clumsily trying to wipe the sleep from his eyes with the hand in a splint.

“Gonna go help Louis and Eleanor find Liz.”

Harry frowned. “‘S not fair.”

“What d’you mean?”

“You were gonna leave without us.”

“You two need to rest. It’s alright.”

Harry was so quiet that Liam wondered if he had fallen asleep again. When he turned to look, he found his best friend sat up in bed, his frown deeper and his brow furrowed.

“We promised to do this as a team. Or have you forgotten that?”

Liam was slightly offended- of course he hadn’t. It was the single most important pinky promise he had ever made, closely followed by the renewal of that promise when the five of them got together. He had only been seven when he hooked pinkies with Harry and swore that no matter how big the mysteries got, they would stick together; it was them before anything else. Hell, he even remembered the plan they had made if things went south: grab the spare suitcase and head to the lake, provoke a mermaid and hope that it bit them, and then live peacefully amongst their new family. Of course their understanding of mermaids had changed since, but the point was that what these boys had was everything to him. Liam would sooner die before he ever forgot a single thing about it.

“Of course I remember. I also remember us promising that it was you and me before anything else. And that’s what I’m doing- putting you first.”

“Well, then I will be first.” Harry said as he shakily got out of bed. “First out that door. Hand me my bag.”

“Harry, no. You’re injured.”

“We all are,” he said as he shrugged on his coat.

“It’s not the same.”

“No,” Harry had a hard time getting his splint through the sleeve and nodded in thanks when Liam came over to help him, “it’s not. But having my arm a bit fucked up means nothing.”

“Harry, you saw-”

“I know what I saw,” he said bitterly. He closed his eyes for a moment before leaning over the bed and gently shaking Niall. “Nialler, wake up.”

Niall groaned but didn’t open his eyes.

“Nialllllllll…”

Liam grabbed Harry’s arm. “Don’t do this, mate. Just go back to bed.”

“If you wanna sleep, be my guest. But I’m gonna find Zayn. We promised it was all or nothing, and I’m not letting some fucking geometric shit get in the way of that.” Harry shook Niall harder this time. “Oi, get up. We’re gonna go find Zayn.”

That got his attention, his eyes opening quickly before drooping again. “Huh?”

“Gonna go look for Zayn, mate.” Harry held out his good hand for Niall to take. “You coming?”

“Course I am.” He took the hand and hoisted himself off the bed.

“Lads-”

“Shut up, Liam.” Harry took his backpack and patted his best friend on the cheek twice. “We’re going, and there’s nothing you can do but come with us.”

It didn’t take much for Liam to realize that Harry was right, relief washing over him as he looked between his friends. It was always better when the boys were together, and he knew that as a team they’d get a lot further than they would apart. They went to meet with Louis and Eleanor, Niall and Harry energized by the fact that they had information they had nearly forgotten. Liam hadn’t yet told them that their friends had been at the Hall of the Forgotten, so he made sure to contact Louis so they could meet at a different location. The boys needed someplace private and safe where they could think- the bunker.

“Doin’ alright, lads?” Louis hugged Niall and Harry tightly when he saw them at the edge of the forest.

Niall shrugged and winced. “Hurts to do anything.”

The others nodded, sharing the sentiment.

“We’ll be alright,” Harry said. “Let’s get to the bunker; we’ve got work to do.”

They all agreed and started walking, the boys standing close together. Louis had an arm around Niall and Harry each and started telling them about what he and Eleanor had found so far. Liam looked between his friends, slightly incredulous. Could it be that Zayn’s absence made them stronger? They had come together out of their sadness for a common goal—to find Zayn—and it seemed that it had caused the bond they already had to strengthen exponentially. If they could get through Zayn being gone, surely they could get through whatever the demons had for them.

“What do you think, Liam?”

Liam blinked rapidly and was unable to mask the confusion on his face as he looked at Eleanor. “Uh, sorry. What was that?”

“Harry thinks that Liz’s sister is the woman from the memory.”

“And if she is,” Niall continued. “She’s also the one that was working at Town Hall.”

Liam frowned and spoke slowly. “That means she’s also the unicorn.”

“What?”

“The unicorn Lazy Susan told us about,” he said in response to Louis. “That girl- Nina- she had all the protections on her before giving them to Harry.”

“Including the unicorn hair,” Eleanor concluded. “They have to be the same person.”

“We find her,” Harry said as he tossed a large rock up at the branch that would reveal the entrance to the bunker, “we find Zayn.”

As if symbolic of their newfound strength, Harry managed to hit the branch on the first try. They waited for the stairs to appear and slowly made their descent. It was a stark contrast to how they entered nearly two weeks ago; no one was after them this time, but that was only because their enemies didn’t think they could do it without Zayn. The boys knew the demons’ unfounded confidence was their sole, momentary advantage.

“We have two main goals,” Louis said. “We need to read the journal and find whatever they didn’t want us to know about, and we have to find Liz and Nina.”

“We’ll take the journal.” Liam said, referring to himself and Harry.

Niall nodded. “Then the three of us can look for the girls.”

“The only place I can think of th-” Harry abruptly stopped talking when he noticed Bruce’s head perk up. The dog stared beyond them into the bunker, nose twitching as if it was sensing something.

“Wh-”

“Shh,” Eleanor lifted one finger, listening carefully. The faint sound of shuffling was coming from somewhere deeper in the supposedly protected catacombs.

Louis nudged her arm, telling her to let Bruce go. She looked reluctant but did as he suggested, Liam and Louis removing their shoes before quietly following. Bruce padded along, sniffing boxes and furniture. He avoided the cryogenics chambers and broke into a run as he approached the storage area where they kept provisions. Everyone drew their weapons as the tension built; Louis and Liam nodded at each other in agreement that they would tackle whatever it was if it tried to run. Bruce then barked, ruining any element of surprise they might have had.

“Who’s there?” Louis yelled, his hands slightly shaking as he took a step in front of Liam.

Bruce growled, prompting the others to approach. Liam glanced at their weapons, realizing all they’d really be capable of was being an annoyance if it turned out there was a human hiding down here. The only thing that could possibly work were a few knives, some still covered in syrup.

“Don’t make us ask again!”

“Okay, alright! Just don’t shoot!”

They stood their ground, Bruce still barking, as a figure popped up from behind a stack of boxes. The tension reached its peak before taking a nosedive when Niall spoke.

“ _Liz?_ ”

The brunette looked tired and scared, her hair loose and frazzled in a more disheveled manner than its usual 80s style. She was wearing a mix of the boys’ clothes; even the shoes she was wearing looked like they each belonged to a different person. “Boys!”

Liam was almost knocked to the ground from the force of her hug, and awkwardly patted her back while he held his weapon. “Why didn’t you come out when you heard us?”

“And how do you know about the bunker?” Eleanor asked, Sophia’s gun over her shoulder as she watched Louis try and calm Bruce.

“I haven’t slept in a few days,” Liz responded, teary eyed. “Everything is blurring.”

“And the bunker?” Harry prompted.

“‘Course I know about the bunker,” she sniffed. “It’s the one thing we all learn about, whether we want to or not. In times like these, you have to have a place to hide. I didn’t know you guys had done more than find it.”

“How long have you been here?” Louis asked.

Liz shrugged. “You guys don’t have a calendar. I didn’t mean to come here, but I got chased by something in the forest and decided to stay.”

“Explains why the shack was the way it was,” Niall said, passing a hair tie between Harry and a grateful Liz .

“Where’s Rosa?” Harry asked.

“Gone. She left town to visit her family in Portland.”

“Where’s your sister?” Liam asked.

The room went quiet. Liz lowered herself to sit on a box, aware that all eyes were on her. “I don’t know.”

It was like her words had triggered a bomb. The boys began yelling, only a few of their words intelligible amidst the echoing chaos. Someone was asking about the journal and someone else about Town Hall, the words mashing together in a cacophonic crescendo before Eleanor stepped in.

“Quiet!” She didn’t have to wait long for the attention to shift in her direction, pivoting only slightly on one heel to address the small crowd. “Look, I know we’re all strung up because of Zayn-”

“Zayn?” Liz suddenly looked panicked. “Where is he?”

No one answered. They boys’ jaws were set. Even Bruce let out a whine.

“He’s gone,” Eleanor said solemnly. “They took him.”

“Who?”

“The demons,” Louis snapped. “The demons your sister led us to! So where the fuck is she?”

“I don’t know!” Liz’s hands flew to her face, chipped nails slightly digging into the tired skin around her eyes.

“Louis!” Eleanor gently but firmly pushed against Louis’ chest, forcing him to back off.

Harry stepped forward in his stead, voice even more monotone then usual. “What do you know?”

The young shop-owner took a few deep breaths; softening, Liam and Niall sat on either side of her. They comforted her until she was significantly calmer while Louis and Harry stood by Eleanor, looking as if they were about to burst with questions. Eleanor kept an eye on both of them, allowing Liam to be the one to start the interrogation.

“Why did you break into my house to give me the journal? Why not just give it when you recognized your sister’s handwriting at the shack?”

“I wasn’t sure it was Nina, and I didn’t have the journal yet.”

“So that’s really her name?” Harry asked.

Liz nodded. “She doesn’t live here. Left to work for the government and never came back.”

“So you thought she was on the other side of the country,” Niall concluded.

“Yeah. When I thought maybe it could be her, I went looking. When I finally found her, she was furious because I had put myself in danger. Then, I stole the journal from her after I heard about what happened at Town Hall and wrote the riddle for you.”

“Wait, what?”

“Nina was the one who lured you to Town Hall,” Liz clarified.

Louis frowned, “We weren’t lured anywhere. We were following clues.”

“No, that's what she wanted you to think. My sister had the journal long before you got there.”

“You mean…” Niall’s voice got smaller and smaller as he spoke. “She planned the whole thing?”

Liz nodded. Abruptly, Harry left, his hands balled into fists at his sides. Liam made a move to follow him, but Louis held out his hand, indicating that he would go instead. He followed his friend back into the lab, where Harry seemed to be trying to calm himself. Louis knew that Harry could get a bit scary when he was truly angry, so he attempted to talk him down.

“It’s gonna be alright, mate.”

“No it’s not,” Harry said harshly, his words clipped. “Nina knew we’d eventually go to Town Hall; hell, she planned on it. She wanted us to find the demons and for what? To get fucking attacked? There was no reason to lead us there!”

“We found out about the demons, though. That counts for something.”

“It doesn’t count for shit! We could’ve found out about them through the goddamn journal! All we managed to do was get Zayn possessed. We put him on their radar and now look at where we are!”

“I know!” Louis was trying very hard not to let Harry’s anger spark his own; he needed to be the leader, the one with a cool head. “But she saved your life.”

“And what the fuck does that matter?”

“It’s your life, Harry! It matters a hell of a lot to me!”

“They fucking took him, Louis!” Harry rounded on his friend. “We got set up and we lost Zayn!”

“You don’t think I know that! I know this sucks and maybe it is her fault, but we’re gonna get him back.”

“You don’t get it!” In one smooth motion, he grabbed a nearby desk lamp and threw it against the wall, barely pausing long enough to hear it shatter. “This isn’t some creepy kidnapping shit! We’re not gonna get the police or the feds to help! We can’t track them down to some shady house by the lake or in the woods and break Zayn out! These are fucking _demons_! Demons took Zayn, and we can’t do anything about it!”

Before Louis could say anything, they heard the sound of people running towards them. Bruce nearly knocked Harry over in his haste, nudging at him with his head.

“What happened?” Niall asked, his eyes darting around the room. His fingers were twitching towards his pockets, unconsciously mimicking pulling a trigger in preparation of handling the invisible threat he believed to have entered their fortress.

Liam’s eyes fell upon the broken lamp, taking a step closer as if ready to investigate for any sign of paranormal activity. “Is everything okay?”

Harry followed everyone’s gaze and deflated, the interruption apparently enough to make him realize the hastiness and irrationality of his outburst. “‘M sorry. I just-”

“He figured something out,” Louis interrupted.

The youngest boy’s brow furrowed. “What?”

“You said we can’t get the feds to help, but we already have. Nina works for the feds; she came to keep an eye on the mayor and figure out what was happening. She sent the ciphers to warn us, to get our help.”

“But why you guys?” Eleanor asked.

“Because she can’t call anyone else,” Liam said slowly. As if struck by an idea, he quickly dug through his backpack and pulled out the sixth journal, flipping the pages until he found what he was looking for. “Here! Dipper says that Bill wasn’t able to leave Gravity Falls; if Nina is working close enough to the demons, she might not be able to get messages to her people on the outside.”

“But that doesn’t explain how we got the ones at school.”

“Our cousin,” Liz said quietly. “We have a cousin who’s a professor there. She came to visit not too long before you guys came home.”

“Nina must have seen us as her last hope.” Niall said. “If she could pique our interest enough, she could get us back home and trust we’d solve the rest on our own.”

“She still lured us into Town Hall,” Harry said; most of his anger was gone now, but they could hear a distinct bitterness in his tone.

“She had to have a reason,” Louis assured.

“Then we need to find her.” Eleanor said as she put Bruce back on his leash. “We need to go to Town Hall.”

Liam nodded. “Harry and I will keep going where Zayn left off.”

“And what about Liz?”

They all frowned at Niall’s question, unsure of how to answer. Eleanor then led her dog to the brunette. “Keep him with you in here. We’ll let you know when it’s safe.”

Louis nodded and grabbed an old pair of walkie talkies Sophia had fixed up before she developed their earpieces, fiddling with the frequency before handing one to Liz. “Keep in contact. If you think of anything that could help, give us a buzz.”

When they were all in agreement, they moved to split up. Just before doing so, Louis and Harry grabbed Liam and Niall, pulling them into a group hug. Nothing could prepare them for the next twenty-four hours, but even if they had been given the choice to either be told or have this hug, they would’ve chosen to stay in this moment every single time.

**> >>>>**

Something felt off. Of course, without Zayn things weren’t ever truly right, but still, Niall couldn’t shake the feeling that something was not quite okay. Everything appeared relatively normal from his position in the back of the small search party. His friends didn’t seem any more disturbed than they had been and there wasn’t an influx of animal activity, so he shrugged and kept an eye out just in case. And, as expected, the moment Niall attempted to relax was the same moment weird shit started.

“What the hell was that?”

The others turned to look but saw nothing. Louis raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t see anything, mate. You okay?”

“I’m fine. You’re not gettin’ any weird vibes?”

He and Eleanor shook their heads.

“Well, keep your eyes peeled anyway.”

It took another ten minutes before Niall stopped again. This time he knew he saw something, but he had no idea what it was. It looked maybe like a Furby, but he wasn’t completely sure. Nudging Louis, he motioned to a nearby house where he had seen the creature dart behind a bush. Louis pulled out a small gun that had a plunger-like sucker attached to it. Whatever the thing was, it wasn’t attacking them, so it was silently agreed that they’d catch it for now.

As they got closer to the bush, the creature seemed to sense them and darted. Louis acted quickly, running after it before dropping to his knees and shooting. The suction cup successfully latched itself to the creature, allowing Louis to reel it back in so that they could take a closer look at it. Once it was close enough, Niall took a step back. Eleanor and Louis looked absolutely horrified, their eyes transfixed on the small creature. Then, out of nowhere, Niall started to laugh, his face turning red as his shoulders shook. The other two jumped at the sound and turned to face him sharply.

“What are you laughing at?” Louis asked incredulously.

“And what the hell is that thing?” Eleanor couldn’t even glance at it, shuddering as she turned her back.

Niall looked at the creature again and laughed even harder. Louis dared to look at it again in an attempt to figure out what it was. It looked like… well, it didn’t really look like anything he’d ever seen. The best way he could describe it was a hellspawn koala with a meth addiction.

As Niall’s laugh slowly died down, he tried to tell them exactly what it was. “I drew this in uni.”

“You drew this?” Eleanor sounded mortified and looked as if she were about to call an exorcist.

“In the back of the two hour philosophy lecture we had. Drew it on the corner of… oh shit.” Whatever he was thinking of seemed to sober him right up.

“The corner of what?”

“The corner of Zayn’s sketchbook.” Louis frowned down at the creature. “This doesn’t look good. We’ve never seen them in town before.”

“Not that we’ve really seen them too often,” Niall said quietly, “but yeah. Something’s happening.”

“Well then, we have to get rid of it.” Eleanor said. “Any suggestions?”

“Paper?” Niall shrugged.

“Paper?”

“Yeah, like they did on Spongebob.”

Louis nodded, “Ah, right. Worth a shot. Anyone got a sheet?”

Niall pulled one out of his backpack and approached his creation. He took a breath and quickly smacked the creature with the paper, only succeeding in making it cry out in pain. “That didn’t work.”

“I can see that, Niall.”

Eleanor pursed her lips. “Maybe we need something that’ll get rid of the ink.”

“Water?”

“Depends,” Louis said. “Zayn always draws with a sharpie.”

“Then we’re gonna need some sort of acid. Stain remover, or maybe some alcohol will work.”

Niall nodded at her. “We could fill the water guns with it.”

“And the hollow grenades.” Louis suggested, head tilted up to the sky. A flock of thickly lined birds with tiger heads was heading straight towards them. “Cuz I’ve got a feeling this piece of shit is just the beginning.”

**> >>>>**

“I lost it back there.” Harry mumbled, pressing his cheek against the wooden dock at the lake. He could hear the low hum of the mermaids underwater, their activities only occasionally covered as the Gobblewonker created waves that splashed against the shore.

“It was just a lamp,” Liam said. “No harm done.”

“What if I had thrown it at Louis?”

“Mate,” he put down the journal and looked at Harry, “you know you wouldn’t have.”

“Yeah…” Harry paused for a long while before his eyes widened slightly. “Oh, what the fuck…”

“What’s wrong?”

“That demon at Town Hall,” he said, lifting his head. “It could see the future.”

“Which one?”

“The circle. Its body flashed, remember?”

Liam furrowed his brow, trying to remember the things he had blocked from that day. “Maybe… yeah, yeah… I remember seeing a few things.”

“Yeah,” Harry said as he sat up, “and one of those things was me throwing a lamp.”

“The star was the one that possessed Zayn,” Liam mused. “He told me that he had heard its voice in his head before then. They must each have their own special powers.”

Harry nodded. “We’ll have to keep an eye on that then.”

He fell silent again, allowing Liam to read aloud from the journal. They both scrutinized every word in it, hoping they’d find what they had previously missed. Zayn had seen something there; now it was their turn. As Liam got further and further, Harry found it harder to pay attention. He kept hearing odd noises coming from the surrounding area and low growls from the sky. But whenever he looked, he either saw nothing or just a flock of oddly shaped birds. Liam was concentrating all of his energy on the journal, intent on not being distracted.

“ _When Bill tried to leave Gravity Falls to wreak his havoc and spread Weirdmageddon to the rest of the world, he found himself trapped inside the town. Great-uncle Ford later told me that the weirdness of the town wasn’t the only thing that the aliens had brought when they crashed here millions of years ago. The energy from their ship created some sort of force field that would take a lifetime to chip away. This allowed all the weirdness of Gravity Falls to remain where it was._ ”

“A force field?”

Liam nodded. “Sounds like it’s been working until recently.”

“A lifetime to chip away…” Harry repeated. “D’you think that’s what they’ve been doing all this time? Trying to break away the barrier until they were all properly released?”

“Makes sense to me. Nina told us that Gravity Falls was just the beginning. If they’re using the energy taken from the souls of Zayn’s creatures, it’s only a matter of time until they’re strong enough.”

Harry frowned in thought. “The octahedron Louis and I saw in the forest was a soul stealer. The circle demon deals with time, and according to the journal, Bill was a dream demon. The star that possessed Zayn has to be some sort of mind demon, and now that they’ve got Zayn, that one has access to creatures the moment an idea is formed.”

“The more creatures, the more souls.” Liam’s face grew sullen. “Which means the fastest way to get those souls is to-”

As if the demons had read Liam’s mind—which, given their nature, they likely had— the earth started to shake. Thinking it was signaling their arrival, the boys quickly grabbed their gear and stood back-to-back, ready for an attack. The shaking became so violent that the trees were trembling and the creatures of the forest started running for cover. The mermaids in the lake surfaced and seemed to be looking towards the hill where the old Northwest Manor stood. Realizing that the attack wasn’t coming, Liam and Harry followed their lead.

Slowly rising from the earth was a massive teal dodecahedron reminiscent of the bubble prison that Mabel had been trapped in during Weirdmageddon. It glowed as it hovered in the sky, occasionally emitting beams of light down at the relatively unprotected town. With each beam came the cries of creatures echoing all around them, some of which sounded like a mashup of several nature sounds CDs. The boys’ worst fears were confirmed when they saw what was on the dodecahedron- what looked like a spray painted version of Zayn’s _Zap!_ tattoo was splashed over several of its faces, gleaming bright amidst the rapidly darkening sky. He was trapped inside, his thoughts and creativity being used to create a multitude of creatures for the sole purpose of being killed. There would be no avoiding it if the townspeople wanted to survive, and with every kill there was another soul to power the demons and another creature to fight.

“They’re at the manor,” Liam said as he pressed his earpiece.

“Which means Nina’s there, too.” Harry grabbed their things and started running alongside his friend, macing any foreign creature that came after them to avoid supplying souls.

“Niall, can you hear me?”

“Hardly!” Niall’s voice sounded shaky, sounds of blasts and grunting in the background.

“You found Zayn’s drawings, yeah?”

“More like they found us. Oh fuck…” Niall hissed in pain before the sound of metal clanging rang in Liam’s ears. “Can’t do anything but kill them.”

“Don’t!” Harry yelled as a blue liger pounced on him.

Liam skid to a stop, tripping over his feet as he tried to go back. He dove, tackling the liger and rolling away from Harry with it before punching it in the face. Harry quickly pulled a knife from his boot, going against the order he had just given to Niall and jumping on top of the liger to stab it.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Liam said, his tone grateful nonetheless.

Harry kicked the body off of Liam and held out his hand, glancing around for more creatures. “I’d rather them get its soul than yours.”

A chorus of growls came from somewhere behind them, prompting them to continue running. Liam called for Niall again, explaining that killing the creatures would be counterproductive.

“So, you’re saying- shit- all we gotta do is find out the proper way to get rid of them?”

“Yeah,” Harry said, panting. “But good luck with that. None of them are made with weaknesses.”

“Maybe… maybe Eleanor found it.”

Liam looked behind them and threw a few stink bombs to slow down their pursuers. “What d’you mean?”

“The drawings were made with sharpie.” Niall paused and recharged his taser; they could hear Louis yelling in the background. “She figures- ow, get back here you little fucker!”

“Kick it again!” Eleanor’s voice came through, her passionate hate for Niall’s drawing evident.

“Anyway,” Niall said over the sound of a creature screaming as it was kicked. “She thinks if we use like alcohol and stain remover, we might be able to get ‘em done proper.”

Liam and Harry looked at each other, shrugging before the former grabbed Harry and pulled them both down onto the forest floor. One of the oddly shaped birds Harry had seen earlier was apparently not a bird at all; it had the head of a tiger and had just swooped and attempted to bite Harry’s head off.

“Thanks, mate.”

Liam nodded, about to exhale in relief when Harry shot up and dragged him up off the ground. An alligator with a skateboard stomach was coming up fast behind them.

“It’s worth a shot, Niall. Get all the acid you can find and make your way to the manor; that’s where Zayn is.”

“Is that what that massive ball is?”

“It’s a dodecahedron; one of the demons,” Liam said.

“The demon of chaos from the looks of it.” Harry said as he looked up; he could still see Zayn’s prison bubble through the thick foliage, beams of light rhythmically illuminating their path.

“Have you figured out how to get rid of the demons yet?”

“No, but-” Harry was then hit on the back of the head with a rock by a caricature of Louis.

“Oi, you little shit! Only the real Louis can do that!” Liam turned and swiftly punted the small version of his friend, only slightly smiling at the higher pitched screech it made as it sailed through the air.

“We’ll just meet you there, okay?” Niall said quickly. “Not a sign of life at Town Hall, so if the demons are at the manor, Nina must be, too.”

Harry and Liam agreed and disconnected, running and fighting for their lives as they made their way to the hill. Niall continued on his end, trying not to kill anything to keep the situation from getting worse. It was hard since the creatures were relentless, but a lot of Sophia’s weapons were so powerful that they put many of the creatures out of commission. The three of them were teaming up with townspeople that had become aware of what was happening and were attempting to gather whatever stain removing agents they owned. A few of them were being taken before they had the chance to help, plucked up by different winged creatures and taken in the direction of the manor. And, just, when they thought things couldn’t get worse, they did.

A pink, diamond-shaped demon appeared in a burst of light and froze everything. Time stopped, but Niall was still aware of what was going on around him. He could see his friends from where he was- Eleanor was in the middle of punching another one of Niall’s creepy drawings while Louis had the barrel of his laser gun in the mouth of a miniature Jersey Devil. Niall swore he could’ve broken through the demon’s powers through the sheer force of wanting to protect Louis, urgency overpowering any laws of magic, space, and time.

“Well, well, well, if it isn’t our old friends…” The diamond snapped its fingers, allowing their heads to be free of the time restraint. “Looks like those weapons of yours are better than we anticipated.”

“Who the fuck are you?” Louis spat, his eyes on anything but the monster in front of him.

“Name’s Jim; the boss says you’re making things a bit difficult, so I came to lend a hand.”

“Bullshit,” Niall muttered.

“Wait,” Eleanor said, bewildered. “Did you say your name was Jim?”

“Of course.”

The trio looked at each other and burst out laughing. “What kind of stupid name is that?”

Jim’s eye looked between them in a slight panic. “What? My name’s great!”

“ _Jim?_ ” Niall cackled. “That’s the dumbest name for a demon!”

“First Bill and now this,” Louis said. “Why the hell were we ever afraid of you?”

“Maybe because of this!” Angered, Jim glowed magenta and seemed to send a signal to Zayn’s prison. It let out a large beam of light, producing two of the Anubis wolves Louis and Harry had encountered in the forest.

“Fucking hell,” Eleanor grumbled. “Someone can’t take a joke.”

“I’m more into riddles,” Jim said, still glowing; his voice was deep and distorted now. “What fixes the broken but can’t fix itself?”

Silence fell upon the group, none of them sure if this was a trick.

“Time’s running out kids,” with every snap of its fingers, a part of the world was allowed to return to the normal time, leaving the trio helpless.

“Niall!” Louis called.

“I don’t know!” Niall was starting to panic, the feeling exacerbated by his inability to fidget. His heart started pounding in his ears; soon they’d be the only things frozen.

“El!”

Eleanor was shaking her head. “I don’t know! I don’t know!”

Jim laughed, and they could feel it vibrate their bones. “If only someone had invented a weapon that would make you smarter.”

It was then that all of the blood rushed out of Eleanor’s face. “No… oh, no, no- Sophia!”

And just like that, time snapped back to normal. Eleanor wasted no time, throwing the backpack she had stolen from Niall over her shoulder and shooting Jim with Sophia’s super soaker. As Jim screeched and writhed in pain, Eleanor turned to face the boys.

“You’ll be okay without me.”

Louis shot the Jersey Devil before running to her and Niall. “Where are you going?”

“To protect Sophia,” she charged up her laser gun and filled the second supersoaker with stain remover. “Someone has to.”

She then ran away, shooting anything that even attempted to attack her. Worried, but knowing she’d be okay, Niall and Louis continued fighting and making their way to meet Liam and Harry. As they ran, they noticed that many of the creatures that could fly were crashing into what looked like an invisible force field. Every so often, one or two would succeed in getting past it, spurring the others to try again with renewed vigor.

“They’re picking up where Bill left off!” Niall yelled. “We have to hurry before they shatter the force field completely.”

Louis nodded. “Then we’ve gotta take the shortcut.”

Niall let out a nervous yell but followed Louis. The shortcut was a zip-line system that Louis had created himself so that he could spend less time travelling and more time exploring. The problem was that it was dangerous; it would keep them away from the creatures, but the lack of control would give them a whole new set of challenges. Niall knew it was their best bet, though, so he did as Louis instructed, taking off his jacket and throwing it over the cord. After Louis had taken off, Niall pushed himself forward, pulling his legs as close to his body as possible. He could feel the branches snagging and tearing his clothes as he went by, dirt and sludgy snow hitting his face. Through the distractions, he watched Louis, copying his moves as they navigated through the forest. With one last push off a tree trunk, Niall let go and tumbled to a stop beside Louis, not even bothering to glance back at the light streaks of blood staining the ground and foliage he’d come in contact with on his way down.

“Never- again,” he panted.

Louis nodded, clapping Niall on the back. “You did well, mate. Real hero you are.”

Niall let out an emotionally charged laugh and let his face sink into the snow for a minute. “Nearly there, yeah?”

“Just about.” Louis stood up and shook his head to get the leaves out of his hair; his beanie had been captured by a branch at some point. “We should be there in a minute or two.”

Compared to the destruction that was happening in the town, the walk to the manor was eerily quiet. They avoided creatures when they could, whether they were Zayn’s creations or not. The pair ran when they saw Liam and Harry waiting for them at the base of the hill. The four boys held on to each other tightly, all of them beat up and tired but definitely happy to be together.

“Where’s Eleanor?” Liam asked.

“She went to go protect Sophia.”

Louis squeezed Liam’s shoulder when he tensed up. “No immediate danger, but it’s better to be safe.”

Niall nodded, not wanting to mention their encounter with Jim. “So where are we at now?”

“We still need to find Nina,” Harry said. “But I’m almost positive she’s somewhere around here.”

“And now we also have to save Zayn before this hell spreads out of Gravity Falls.”

“At least we know where to find him.” They all looked to the sky, the prison looming over them.

“No luck on how to kill the demons?”

Liam shook his head. “We kept reading the journal, but the best we could come up with is to keep shooting them with the blessed water. So far it’s the only thing that’s worked in slowing them down.”

“Let’s get going then,” Louis said. He didn’t want to check on how much water they had left; he was afraid he wouldn’t like what he saw.

They trekked up the hill, trying to go quickly but also wanting to conserve their energy. They had no idea how much they’d have to fight once they got up to the manor, and the last thing they wanted was for any of them to pass out. When they approached the gate, they found it was closed for the first time in their lives. They shrugged, figuring that the force of the prison coming out of the ground must have shut it. Together, they pushed it open and entered the grounds, on the lookout for anything even more out of the ordinary than what was happening.

“Get down!”

The boys jumped and dove to the ground, not even questioning who was yelling. They didn’t even have time to see what they were avoiding before it exploded in the sky. Smoldering feathers and scales fell on the snow around them, black ink-like blood dotting it like a Dalmation’s spots. Once they had shaken off the shock, they turned to find a woman with a crossbow and pink, purple, and blue hair.

Louis stood up quickly and stepped forward so that he was in front of the boys. His taser was ready in his hands and aimed right at her. “Nina Pines?”

She nodded. “Louis, I assume.” Nina raised her hands in surrender and slowly set her weapon on the ground. “I’m not here to hurt you.”

“You’ll understand if we find that a bit hard to believe,” Liam said.

“After all,” Harry added, “you were the reason we nearly died and Zayn got kidnapped.”

“I can explain all of that.”

“Go on, then.” Niall’s words were emphasized by Louis waving the weapon at her.

“Not here,” she looked around nervously. “You’ve tripped the alarm they’ve set for you, so it’s only a matter of time until they come.”

The four looked at each other before looking towards the manor. Sure enough, creatures were starting to literally come out of the woodwork. Nodding, they allowed Nina to lead them to the separate six car garage, Liam carrying her weapon as a sort of extra precaution. The building seemed to be the only place on the property that wasn’t being used for anything. The roof had caved in and there were several electrical wires exposed; no sane being should be in there, so it was a perfect “safe haven” for them to wait out the incoming storm of attacks.

“We should be safe here until we can figure out a plan.” Nina said as she looked around.

“We?” Harry asked. “What makes you think we trust you enough to help us save Zayn?”

“Hey, I saved your life.”

“You were the one who put it in danger,” Liam countered.

Louis put his weapon away and crossed his arms. “You sent them into a trap. Your sister already had the journal, so why did you want them to go to Town Hall?”

“To get this.” Nina reached into her pocket and pulled out a small, black chunk of wood, a rectangular notch carved out of one side.

“A whistle?” Niall asked in disbelief. “You nearly killed my boys over a fucking whistle?”

“This isn’t just any whistle. It’s made from a snag that was rumored to sit by the river Styx.”

“Wait, where’s the Greek Mythology coming from?”

Nina looked up from the whistle. “Most everything stems from it. Are you really that surprised?”

“What the hell is a snag?” Louis asked.

“A dead tree,” Harry answered. “One still standing. They’re usually found by fresh water.”

“And that makes this whistle special because…?”

“Look for yourself.” She tossed the whistle to Louis. “Just don’t blow it.”

Louis inspected it, running his thumb over the circular side where the cork ball normally sat. He squinted at the small picture of a three-headed dog carved in it, wondering if he was seeing things. “Cerberus?”

“Mhm. The original.”

“Original,” Liam mumbled. “Hang on; you don’t mean…”

Nina nodded.

“Mean what?” Niall asked.

Liam looked at Harry who nodded. “Hell hounds.”

“Hell hounds?” Louis asked in disbelief. “Those things aren’t real, are they? They’re just in like the myths and all that.”

Nina walked over and took the whistle back. “Some would say the same about your friend from Jersey.”

Louis’ jaw clenched; the other boys gave Nina looks that made her take a half step back. 

“Alright, I can see that’s a touchy subject.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Niall started. “You wanted the boys to go to Town Hall so that you could get this hellhound whistle?”

“The original plan was for you guys to find the sixth journal, but I managed to get it while you were still hunting down clues. When I was still looking for it, I found out about the whistle, but it was gonna be a lot harder to get. I needed a distraction so I could get past all of the traps that had been set, so I made a fake journal and hoped you’d come for it.”

“We nearly died for that stupid thing.” Liam said.

“I know, but I saved you as best I could. If I hadn’t gotten the whistle, all of you would be dead right now.”

Harry frowned. “You mean the demons were gonna call the hell hounds to get us?”

She nodded. “The moment you got too close and weren’t of use, they were gonna get rid of you guys. This is the only way to call to the hounds from the surface.”

“The puppy party…” Niall realized.

Nina nodded again. “Lazy Susan was the best person to talk to. She makes all her own clues.”

“But they don’t seem to be too concerned that it’s gone.” Louis said, thinking about Jim.

“I don’t think they know just yet. Now that you’ve tripped the alarm, they’ve probably sent someone to get it. None of them thought you’d ever even get out of bed after they took Zayn.”

They looked at each other briefly; they had thought the same thing. But they were still a team, with or without Zayn, and getting him back was more important than being sad that he was gone.

“Well, we’re here now.” Harry said. “So it’d be real nice if you let us know how to kill the demons.”

Nina furrowed her brow. “I thought you guys had that figured out. I mean, that’s why they took Zayn, right?”

“Yeah,” Liam said. “But he didn’t get the chance to tell us about it before they did.”

“The part of the journal with the answer got ruined.”

“Well, then you just need to look harder.”

“What d’you think we've been doing that whole time? Knitting sweaters?” Louis snipped.

Nina pinched the bridge of her nose. “We don’t have time for this. We have to get in there and stop them before Zayn gives them enough power to leave Gravity Falls.”

They could all hear loud booms coming from the town. The creatures were too much for them to take. Nina was right; they had to storm the manor, even though they had no idea what they were doing. It wasn’t too far off from the norm, but the circumstances were different this time. Liam caught Harry’s eye and briefly stuck out his pinky. His friend looked more solemn than usual as he blinked once and copied the motion. The plan was set; now all they had to do was execute it.

Before leaving the relative safety of the garage, everyone made sure they were armed. They would mostly be using water guns, various sage weapons, and their special weapon—a versatile gun that included a flamethrower— until they could figure out exactly what they needed to kill the demons; Nina had a few specialty arrows and guns of her own. Quickly and quietly, they made their way around the manor, looking for an alternate entrance. Despite the fact that they had tripped an alarm, the boys were hoping they could get some element of surprise. They even crossed their fingers for the chance that all of the demons would leave to go and find the hellhound whistle, its importance overwhelming any sort of “immediate” danger.

They tried to keep close to the walls of the house, Louis racking his brain to try and remember if there was a servant’s entrance. Zayn and Eleanor had been the ones to look at the blueprints for the house, but neither of them were here right now. Beside him, Louis could feel Liam and Niall shudder; Harry was already pulling out his ecto-blaster. Louis followed suit, his eyes scanning the property. Even though it was technically daytime, the sky was dark and filled with purple clouds, so if there were any ghosts around, they would be easy to spot.

“Come on out,” Liam murmured.

“Only if you don’t scream.” A disembodied voice responded, sounding like it was right behind them.

“Holy shit…” Niall’s hand flew to his chest, breathing heavily as the ghost materialized.

“Pacifica,” Harry put down his blaster, breathing a sigh of relief.

“Nice to see you again, Harry.” Her eyes scanned over the group, a frown slowly forming. “Where’s the hot one? Zayn?”

“Up there,” Niall pointed.

Pacifica nodded. “You are painfully Irish… And who’s this?”

“Nina Pines,” she answered. “I’m-”

“You’re related to Mabel. I can see it in your face; it’s got that… hopeful glow.” Pacifica wrinkled her nose and caught Louis’ eye, immediately moving to cover the bracelet on her wrist.

“What are you doing here?” He asked.

“I came to save your lives, again.”

“Again?”

She nodded. “All those ghosts that went after you came back.”

“When?”

“Yesterday, but I took care of them.”

“On your own?” Nina asked skeptically.

“Of course not. I had to team up with those _other ghosts_.” She shuddered a little, causing the others to roll their eyes at her dramatics.

“Well, we definitely appreciate it,” Niall said.

“But how are you planning on saving us now?” Liam asked. “Nothing’s happening.”

“Exactly.”

Harry sighed. “Pacifica, please.”

The ghost looked at them all again, her expression changing before she glanced up at Zayn’s prison. “There’s a laser wolf searching the grounds looking for you; it’s on the other side of the manor. With your luck, you’d run right into it.”

Louis and Harry looked at each other and swore before the former spoke. “Is there any way you can get it to leave into the forest?”

“If it’s sensitive to ghosts, then maybe. But I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“It didn’t exist until recently,” Harry explained. “It’s attracted to movement; the laser eyes make it blind. That’s the only way you’d be able to lure it away.”

“But you’re noncorporeal,” Niall said with a frown. “Not sure how well it’ll work.”

Nina stepped closer to Pacifica. “Have you ever possessed anyone before?”

She frowned. “Ew, gross. Of course not.”

“Well,” she said as she loaded a small gun, “I’m gonna need you to try.”

“What are you doing?” Liam asked.

“Making sure you four get in the manor. Zayn’s your friend; you’re the only ones that can stop him and the demons.”

“No. Wait, no, no, no, no, no, no,” Harry’s words came out rapidly. “We’ve spent all this time looking for you and now you’re leaving us?”

“You’ve got the whistle and the journal. There’s nothing more I can do.”

“But your job-”

She cut Niall off. “My job was to find out what was happening here, and I did. I was supposed to call for backup when things got messy, and I did that, too.”

“You called a bunch of kids!” Liam nearly shouted.

“I called a bunch of professionals.” She looked between them. “I know you guys can do this; you’ve gotten this far. You have everything you need.”

“But-”

“She’s right.” Louis said. “She can’t help us anymore. The town isn’t hers to save, and neither is Zayn.”

Nina nodded. “I’ll try and get the wolf away from you guys. I’ve got a few gnome bullets, so I should be okay as long as I go for the eyes, right?”

Harry and Louis nodded.

“When I get close enough,” she turned to Pacifica, “I’ll need your help.”

“Oh, no…”

“You’ll need to possess me and lift me in the air so I can get a good shot and avoid getting mauled. If I can get a firebomb in just the right spot, it shouldn’t respawn. Fire seems to be a weak point for demons.”

Niall snorted at the irony of her statement. Pacifica grumbled about how weird and awful possession was going to be, but she didn’t protest. Nina rolled her eyes and turned to the boys one last time.

“See you on the other side?”

They nodded, all of them filled with varying levels of dread that they were making empty promises.

“Good.” She took a deep breath. “You’ll be alright. Just be careful, they’ll try and trick you.”

“Good luck.”

“Same to you.”

Before fear could take over, Nina motioned for Pacifica to follow her and ran off. The boys were now alone together, listening intently for the sound of screams or metal. It took them a few seconds to realize that they needed to get going and continued on to find the alternate entrance. They crept slowly, just in case the wolf hadn’t taken the bait, until they finally made it to the back of the house.

The moment they rounded the corner, they knew something was wrong. They stepped away from the wall, finding themselves in a mess of green. The backyard was strangely overgrown with weeds, the grass nearly up to their waists. It wasn’t out of the ordinary for a place that was abandoned, but it was December and the rest of the lawn was covered in snow. Everything was incredibly suspicious, which, of course, meant it was the right place to go.

“There it is,” Louis whispered and pointed to a door that would be considered normal-sized in most homes but very small compared to the others found at the manor.

“Should we just go for it, lads?”

They nodded once at Niall and walked forward, trying not to step on anything that was hidden in the grass. As they got closer to the door, they felt more confident; surely if something was going to go wrong, it would’ve done so by now.

Finally, they reached the door, and Harry moved to open it. In taking a step forward, they heard his boot make contact with that sounded like a stepping stone. He looked down to see the hexagonal stone partially covered in vines but thought nothing of it- walkways weren’t supernatural after all. The moment Harry’s hand made contact with the doorknob, however, the stone glowed a bright purple before turning black and swallowing Harry whole.

“Harry!” Niall lunged for him, but was too late. Their curly-haired friend had already disappeared into the abyss.

“What the fuck just happened?” Panic rising, Liam held on to the other two, almost as if he, too, feared he would be taken. “Where did he go?”

“I don’t know!” Louis looked around, his heart racing. “Harry!”

Instead of the voice they hoped to hear, they were greeted with the familiar laugh of a demon. They grabbed for their weapons as the purple hexagon from Town Hall appeared in front of them. “You kids should’ve quit while you were ahead.”

“We don’t have time for this shit!” Louis raised his watergun. “Where’s Harry?”

“Aw, are you gonna shoot me with that?”

Angered by the demon’s condescending tone, Louis pulled the trigger and was stunned when nothing but a small flag with the word _Bang!_ written on it came out. “What the…”

“Your toys mean nothing to me.” It snapped its fingers twice, turning Liam’s gun into a giant licorice rope and Niall’s into a snake; the blond cried out and threw the snake away from him before backing himself into Louis.

“What have you done with Harry?” Liam’s voice was lower than usual when he spoke.

The demon ignored him, conjuring several replicas of their weapons and juggling them. “You’re powerless against me. If you value your lives, you’ll give up now. And who knows, maybe I’ll give you back your cavatappi.”

“Cavatappi?”

“Like the noodle?”

“Oh, for fucks sake…” Louis briefly buried his face in his hands. “Listen, you and your friends better back the fuck off and give our boys back.”

“Or what, short stack?”

Furious, Louis was just about to charge when he was encased in an orange light. A voice cut through the backyard, echoing all around. “I can see none of you are very good at negotiations.”

Everyone turned to see an orange pentagon appear beside the hexagon. When it was fully visible, it let Louis out of its grip. Taking a good look at the new arrival, it was clear that this one was different from the other demons; a circle with a cross going through it in place of its mouth.

“Crossroad demon,” Liam breathed out.

“Right you are. I’m Penny.”

The hexagon readied itself for its introduction. “And I’m-”

“Please don’t say your name is ‘Sexy’.” Everyone stared at Louis; even the demons seemed at a loss. “What? Six sides, right? Pen-ee, sex-ee…”

“Uh, it’s a hexagon, Lou.”

“Oh fuck, right right… Was thinking of like sextuplets and stuff.”

They continued to stare for another moment, Louis shrugging in embarrassment. He was even too embarrassed to say anything when the hexagon muttered that its name was Boris. It was Niall who actually got them back on task.

“So you’re a deal demon?” He asked, crossing his arms when he received an affirmative. “What d’you want?”

“Well, I think it’s really more about what you want.” After Penny spoke, Boris snapped its fingers. Harry suddenly appeared in its fist, unable to move.

“Harry!”

“I’m fine! Just get in the manor!”

“We don’t have any weapons.”

“Yeah, and we’re not just gonna leave you with these two nuts.”

“We’re right here!” Boris snapped.

Liam crossed his arms. “You can’t take two of our best friends and then be insulted when we point out that you’re fucking mental.”

It rolled its eye and squeezed Harry tightly.

“Uh, guys,” he coughed. “Maybe don’t insult them while they can kill me.”

“Fair enough,” Niall said. “Now what’s the deal with this deal?”

Penny’s face flashed just like the circle’s had, but the images weren’t of the future. One picture was of Harry, safe and sound with the others, while the other showed the hellhound whistle. “Give us the whistle and you can get your friend back.”

While the others looked to be contemplating it, Harry looked incredulous. “Of course not! What kind of swap is that?”

“You get to live.” Boris said, as if it were the most obvious and sane solution in the world.

“Yeah…” Liam said. “Until you call up the hounds and have them drag us to hell.”

“Are you sure you’re qualified for this job?” Louis asked.

Furious, Penny grew in size and Boris squeezed Harry again so that he couldn’t speak. “How’s this for a deal then? Give us the whistle and you’ll get Harry and Zayn and a grace period of one hour.”

That… was a little more enticing. A full hour with the five of them and possibly Nina could go a long way. But they couldn’t afford to lose the whistle. They were hoping that they could use it to summon the hounds and have them drag the demons back to hell with them. And leaving Harry wasn’t an option, not for them. They needed to think of another plan.

It was paranoia that made Niall look back to where he had thrown the snake. To his surprise, it had turned back into a gun. Assuming it was fully functioning, he could use it to get rid of the demons. The only problem was that there were two of them- he needed to know how to kill them for good.

Liam nudged Louis, indicating that they needed to buy some time. While the oldest boy rambled, Liam tried to think of a plan. A glance at Niall told him that something was being formulated, but they were missing a few vital clues. They needed Zayn. He was the only one who knew how to get rid of the demons. Liam wracked his brain, desperate to see what he had missed while reading the journal. He just needed a few more hours with it; he was sure he and Harry could figure it out. Speaking of Harry…

Liam looked up to see that Boris was periodically squeezing Harry for fun while Louis annoyed and engaged them, oscillating between insults and pleading for mercy. Looks of pain suddenly changed to realization, and Harry began to make a show of breathing heavily. Liam felt a tremor of worry, watching helplessly as Harry struggled to speak. But the latter didn’t seem worried at all; in fact, he was almost excited.

“Niall!” Harry shouted over Louis just before Boris squeezed him again, startling them all and causing the demon to stop the mild torture. “Just take the deal. Make things right.”

“What? Are you crazy?”

“Niall, please, you have to make it right. It’s our only chance to do the right thing. Zayn would want this, he’d think it was… well, right.”

Thoroughly confused, Niall looked from Harry to the two boys beside him. Clearly, Harry had a plan. Sometimes he said things that sounded like nonsense, but this was too deliberate. It wasn’t until Niall agreed that he realized what was happening.

Penny snapped its fingers, producing a lengthy contract. “All you have to do is sign the bottom and everything will be okay…”

Louis frowned, uncomfortable with the demon’s wording. “I need to tie my shoe,” he said casually, almost as if it didn’t matter that his best friends’ lives were on the line.

The demons paid him no mind, allowing him to crouch down and pick up a clump of mud. He attempted to mold it inconspicuously while Niall read through the contract.

“Just sign it already!” Penny yelled.

“As if I’m signing anything without reading the fine print.”

“If I could take this time, I wanna say something to Liam.” Harry said.

The demons rolled their eyes and looked as if they regretted not killing the boys earlier. “Yes, fine, whatever!”

“Liam, if things don’t go right, there’s something I need to tell you.”

Liam’s blood ran cold; whatever hasty plan they had was about to start. “Go on, mate.”

“It’s a joke I heard from a DJ in college.”

Everyone groaned; they could hardly believe that Harry’s potential last words and important message were a joke. But Liam continued to look at Harry; there was only one DJ that any of them knew.

“Give it to me.”

“Alright,” Harry took a deep breath as Penny pressed Niall to sign the contract; his right hand was visibly shaking as he moved to sign. “Here it goes: how do you kill a circus?”

“Burn it down,” Louis offered.

“Uh, no. Well, actually… but no, no.”

“I don’t know, Harry.” Liam said. Niall was trying to stall by reading the same line over and over. “Tell me.”

“You go for the juggler!”

Liam blocked out all of the groaning, knowing he only had seconds to decipher the joke. The DJ Harry had heard it from was obviously Zayn; DJ Malik was sort of an inside joke from their first year at university. If Zayn had told Harry how to kill something, it was even more obvious that it was about the demons. Liam broke down the joke: the circus was the demons and the juggler was what they had been missing. The juggler… juggler… juggler… What corresponded to a juggler that could kill something?

“The jugular!” Liam grabbed Louis’ arm, repeating himself three more times. He had figured it out, but it didn’t give him any answers.

He could see Niall was about to sign and shut his eyes for a moment. The jugular was in the neck, but the demons didn’t have necks. Necks… Harry had told him that Zayn had frantically grabbed at his neck when he was being taken but had said it was because he couldn’t breathe. But maybe it wasn’t that, and maybe Harry had realized that, too. The demons didn’t have necks, but Boris did have a necktie.

Penny snatched the freshly signed contract from Niall and swooped in front of Louis. “Hand over the whistle!”

“Harry first!”

The demon glowed brightly, tired of them and the trouble they caused. “I’ve had enough of this! Give it to me!”

Liam locked eyes with Niall, both of them diving at the same time. Liam tackled Penny while Niall went for his gun. “Burn the necktie!”

Niall did just that, jumping as high as he could and pulling the trigger so that the flames from his gun hit Boris square on his tie. The demon dropped Harry and shrieked, shaking the walls of the manor as its physical form began to burn. It was a slow and painful thing to watch, but, thankfully, there was no time to. Penny had blasted Liam off of her and turned on them.

“That wasn’t part of our deal!” The orange glow that now surrounded Penny flickered, ironically appearing to be made of flames.

“The deal’s void!” Louis yelled as he threw the decoy whistle at her eye.

The demon growled in pain. “You signed the contract! It’s binding!”

“I’m left-handed, asshole!” Niall grinned and aimed, shooting directly at Penny’s collar and bowtie.

As satisfying as it would’ve been to watch them burn, the boys knew they needed to get moving. Liam ran to Harry, picking him up with ease and carrying him over his shoulder. They ran inside the manor, feet pounding on the floor as they looked for a room with a functioning door.

Louis was panting, but the adrenaline coursing through him gave him the strength needed to yell. “Hang on! Are you telling me that the all powerful and scary as shit demons we’ve been fighting can be killed by destroying _a fucking bowtie_???”

“Neck accessories!” Niall corrected.

“Who gives a shit what they’re called!”

“In here!” Liam took a sharp turn and entered a room, Harry’s arms slamming against the door frame.

Niall closed the door behind him and pulled a sharpie from Zayn’s backpack, drawing symbols on the door just as Harry had back at Town Hall. The sigils would protect them for at least a few minutes, biding them some much needed time. Now they only needed to make sure Harry was okay and think of a solid plan to save Zayn.

“How in the hell did you figure it out, Liam?” Niall was bent over, his hands on his knees as he struggled to control his breathing.

Liam checked Harry’s pulse and pulled up his eyelids. “Was Harry that figured it out. Maybe Boris squeezing him gave his brain the kick it needed.”

“Is he alright?” Louis walked over, concern beneath the exhaustion on his face.

“He’ll be fine; think the fall just knocked him out.”

“So what’s the plan now?” Niall asked as his friends sat down on the floor.

Liam sighed. “Dunno. We’ve lost the whistle, so it’s only a matter of time before the hell hounds come for us.”

Louis’ brow furrowed. “We didn’t lose the whistle.”

“You threw it at Penny.”

“No, mate, that was a a bit of mud I was gonna use to trick them if they tried to doublecross us.”

“So you still have it?”

“Of course.” Louis took the item out of his pocket and tossed it to Liam.

Niall settled on the floor as Liam examined the object. “I assume the plan is to call the hounds in the end, right?”

Liam nodded.

“But how are we meant to control them? Who’s to say they won’t come after all of us?”

Louis looked troubled. “And how long will it be before they go back to hell?”

“They’re task-oriented.” Liam replied. “Once they’ve got what they came for, they leave. If we call them, we’re the masters, and the demons are as good as gone.”

“But we know how to kill the bastards now,” Louis countered. “Why not just torch the place?”

Niall shook his head. “It won’t work for all of them. They’ve got like this hierarchy of shapes; the more complicated, the more powerful.”

“So Penny and Boris are on the bottom rung?”

“Yup. They’re two dimensional. The dodecahedron that’s got Zayn has to be in the top tier. We might be able to just light up the lower demons, but the others won’t be so easy.”

“So we’ll use the hell hounds to have them dragged back into hell and trapped there.” Liam finished, handing the whistle back to Louis, who carefully put it back in his pocket.

“And what about Zayn?”

Liam pouted. “Not sure. I’m afraid if we even attempt to destroy his prison he’ll get hurt.”

“His bubble doesn’t even have a neck thing.” Louis said.

“No,” Liam said with a frown as Harry began to groan from his spot on the floor. “But it is the demon; Harry said that the sphere demon trapped him at the Hall of the Forgotten.”

“Wha ‘bout me?” Harry slowly tried to sit up, thankful when Niall scrambled over to help.

“How you feelin’, mate?”

He squinted at Louis. “Head’s pounding, but I suppose I’ve been worse. Think the hand fracture might be a full on break now, though.”

Niall gingerly examined the hand in question, backing off when Harry winced. “Let’s leave that alone for now.”

“Good idea.” Harry groaned again as he fully sat up, eyes shut tight from the pain of being dropped twice in such a short timespan. When he opened his eyes, he looked at Liam and gave a shaky grin. “You were sick back there, mate. Knew I could count on you.”

Liam beamed. “You were the one who figured out how to kill them.”

“Nah, that was Zayn.”

“How’d you put it together?” Louis asked, allowing Harry to lean back on him and Niall.

“Put myself in his shoes… Back at the hall, the demon was holding him like Boris had me. When he started grabbin’ at his throat, I thought he couldn’t breathe- but I could. I just couldn’t talk, so I figured that it was a clue. It was the only thing that made sense seeing as the demons are naked.”

“They’re shapes, Harold. They aren’t meant to wear clothes.”

“Which was exactly why it was so suspicious.”

“Well, then I guess you got lucky getting swallowed up like that.”

“I wouldn’t call it lucky, Niall.”

He shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

“Back on task, lads.” Liam interrupted. “We still need to break Zayn out before the demons can leave Gravity Falls. They’ve probably gotten hundreds more souls by now.”

“Zayn has to break himself out,” Harry said.

“What do you mean?”

“Right, of course.” Liam rubbed his face. “In the journal, Dipper talked about how they couldn’t get Mabel out of her bubble until she made the decision to leave it.”

“Shall we split up, then?” Louis asked.

“I’d rather not.” Niall said, looking between them. “Nothing good has ever come out of it.”

“But we’ve gotta be quick. Two of us can try and help Zayn break out while the other two take the whistle and go after the demons.”

“Yeah, maybe…” Liam hesitated for the briefest moment. “Maybe it’s better if we split up.”

Niall looked to Harry for support, but for once, the youngest boy wasn’t with him. “Harry?”

“They’re right.” He said without looking at any of them. “We’ll get it done faster.”

Louis and Liam helped Harry stand up, making sure he was stable before the oldest boy spoke. “We’ll meet back up in the front lawn if we’re successful. If not, we’ll find each other. Agreed?”

They nodded, Liam and Harry pulling them into a group hug. Liam was gripping them tighter than usual, and Harry’s forehead was pressed far too hard into Niall’s shoulder. But before Louis could say anything, they pulled away and gathered their gear. With instructions to give Zayn a hug from them and individual hugs all around, Liam and Harry left. Louis and Niall were left with feelings of unease, never more uncertain of how things would turn out than they were now.

**> >>>>**

Zayn had been the Ghost Rider for quite some time and had enjoyed it until now. He wasn’t sure how long he had been trapped, but it hadn’t been as bad as he anticipated. He was free in this world; free to create whatever he wanted with no fear of being attacked or taken advantage of. He didn’t have to worry about creatures lurking behind the corner, and he loved it. He loved every part of this world, from the black and white parts he could color to the thick blonde streak that appeared in his hair. So it came as a massive shock to him when he was suddenly able to see outside of his world and witness the attempted murder of his friends. An even bigger shock came when he was promptly dragged away by some of the things he had created, locked in the castle he had designed, and was then forced to be surrounded by the things he loved in an attempt to keep him complacent. It was too late, though; the illusion had been shattered, and he needed to get back to his boys.

He was no longer in love with this world, using his swords and crossbow to fight his way through the very things into which he had breathed life. Zayn took out his anger on anything that tried to stop him from leaving, every slice replacing a smack to his own head for letting this world control him- there was no true freedom here. The only thing that hadn’t betrayed him yet was his motorcycle, and as he hopped on it, he hoped it would stay that way. Immediately, flames burst from the bike, burning a path for Zayn as he headed towards the edge of his prison. The main problem now was that this point didn’t exactly exist. He could ride forever and not get anywhere; the only reason he was able to find it that time was because something had happened that shook the demon’s powers. He had a strong suspicion that his boys had figured out how to kill them, frightening the once overly confident otherworldly beings.

Despite the bleak outlook, Zayn kept riding. Maybe his will to get out would be enough to crash through. The longer he rode, however, the lower the likelihood was. There had to be something he was missing, some other way to get out. The only thing he could remember from the journal was that Mabel had to make the decision to leave and then fought when her world turned against her. Zayn had already made the choice to bail, and the cuts and bruises covering his body were proof enough that he’d been betrayed. So what was he missing?

He skid his bike to a stop, leaving a long scorch mark on the street. He needed quiet if he was going to think of a way out of here, and riding on a motorcycle through crowds of murderous drawings was the worst way to get that. He left the bike on the ground and ran into a nearby building, drawing traps along to way that would protect him for a few minutes. Once safely inside, Zayn plopped down on a bed he found; it smelled like his house, causing an ache in his heart to worsen. He pushed those thoughts out of his mind, focusing on the present situation. He knew without a doubt that the boys were coming for him, but he wasn’t sure that they’d be able to leave if they managed to get in.

The difference between his prison and Mabel’s was that his was an actual demon. The only person that would know how to get out was Harry; he had been trapped back at the hall and obviously managed to escape. But even with the information, Zayn doubted it would be enough. Whatever demon was holding him was incredibly strong, stronger than the one that had Harry. But still, Zayn thought it would be better if he were here anyway.

“Zayn!”

He shot up in bed, a sword in one hand and a laser gun in the other. All of his fear and panic melted away, however, when he was greeted with the sight of a scruffy and sweaty friend. “Louis?”

“Course it’s me, mate.” His voice echoed strangely in the room, but Zayn hardly thought anything of it. After all, it was probably just a side effect of Louis not actually belonging to this world.

“Oh, god, I thought I’d be trapped here forever.” Zayn holstered his gun and left the sword on the bed. “How’d you get in here?”

“Doesn’t matter. We gotta go.” Louis started to leave the room but stopped when Zayn called out.

“Wait, wait, where are the others?”

“Downstairs, now come on.”

Zayn followed Louis downstairs and, sure enough, saw the other boys waiting for him. He felt his heart soar; he was finally getting out of here. “Lads!”

“Zayn!” The chorus was a little unsettling, but it only slowed him down a little bit.

“How are things going down there? You figured out how to kill the demons, right?”

“You bet we did, chum.” Harry said.

“Uh… okay.” Zayn eyed him for a moment, suspicious. “Something happen to your hair?”

“Oh, I just cut it a bit. Not practical for battle.”

“It looks longer.”

Harry laughed creepily, the sound slowly fading into an eerie whisper.

Zayn took a step back, his hand inching towards his gun. “How’d you guys get here again?”

“Magic,” Liam said. “Town’s full of it.”

“You don’t need that,” Niall said, nodding at the weapon. “We’re here now.”

“Yeah, Zayn. Chill.” Louis came up behind Zayn and, in the blink of an eye, took his gun.

“Actually, I do need that if we’re gonna get out of here.” Zayn tried to take it back, but Louis was too fast.

“We’ve got other weapons.” Liam said. “They’re outside.”

It was then that Zayn noticed something crucial- the boys were all wearing short sleeves, and none of them had tattoos. To make sure, he swiftly brought his foot down on the wooden floor, kicking the broken board across the room. They all turned, revealing a blue star on the backs of their necks; Harry’s glowed through his hair. When they turned back, there was no question that Zayn had figured them out. So they attacked.

Zayn somersaulted away, pulling out his marker and literally drawing up some weapons. The great thing about his world was the artistic license; as long as it resembled the object in some way, it’d come to life. Now wielding two blades, he fought against the demon’s creations. But they still looked like his friends, and, just as they anticipated, Zayn hesitated before killing Liam. The doppelgänger took advantage of this, striking Zayn on the side of the head and kicking him toward Niall. Just as the aforementioned was about to shoot Zayn, he felt rage boil inside him and swiftly stabbed his attacker. Furious that Niall and the others were being used against him, Zayn took the laser gun Niall had been holding and shot the others.

Eyes watery and heart racing, Zayn looked around at the bodies. He wiped his forehead with his arm and tried to get back on track, but before he could, the bodies shuddered. Out from them came two more versions of the boys, all eight surrounding him.

“Fucking shit…”

There was only time enough for one deep breath before Zayn was attacked again. He dodged flames and tasers, knocking out the clones and trying his best to not kill them- the last thing he needed was an army of his friends. As he fought them, Zayn noticed that the boys became increasingly more like the real ones. It wasn’t until he stabbed Louis in the back that he realized that he had been thinking about their battle strategies the entire time, giving the demon everything it needed to make the fake boys stronger. At this rate, he’d be dead in a few minutes.

Trapped in an intense sword fight with Liam, it took Zayn a moment to realize that he wasn’t being attacked so heavily anymore. He kicked Liam’s feet out from under him and knocked him unconscious before whipping around to see what was happening. He was greeted with the grotesque sight of his not-friends being melted into pools of jet black ink. Incredibly, no clones popped up again, but there were still plenty left to fight. Zayn wasn’t sure how the melting had happened, but as long as it worked, he wasn’t going to complain. As it was, his exhaustion and rage increased with every blow delivered and received. He then turned to strike a fatal blow to Niall, but was stopped by two things: Niall’s quick reflexes stopping the sword with his gun and Niall’s voice.

“Zayn, it’s me! It’s Niall!”

The anger on Zayn’s face melted away as Niall’s voice reverberated in his head. He dropped his sword and threw himself at Niall, almost sobbing into his neck.

“‘S alright, mate. I got you…” he held Zayn tightly, his chin quivering.

“Where are the others?”

On cue, Louis burst out from a group of clones, their bodies flying through the air before melting away. He stood there looking quite pleased with himself before finally spying Zayn and Niall. “Zayn!”

“Lou!”

Louis ran and crashed into them, the force of his hug nearly knocking them over. “You look like shit, bro. What happened?”

“I decided to leave and everything attacked; we have to get out of here. Where are Liam and Harry?”

“Back at the manor.” Niall answered. “They’ve gone to confront the demons.”

Zayn pulled away quickly. “By themselves?”

“I thought it was a bad idea.”

“It was better this way,” Louis explained. “Your bubble is creating monsters that are supplying souls to the demons. Soon, they’ll have enough to break through the barrier around Gravity Falls.”

“Besides,” Niall said reassuringly, “they’ve got the hell hound whistle.”

“Hell hound whistle?”

“We’ll explain later. Right now we need to get out before the other demon sends more shit for us to fight.”

“Another demon?”

“Yeah,” Louis said as he dragged his friends out of the building. “You didn’t notice it?”

Zayn looked up at the sky to see a bright blue star where the sun should’ve been. He swore under his breath, realizing it was the same demon that possessed him back at Town Hall. “We have to kill it if we’re gonna get out of here. How’d you get in anyway?”

“Used them plunger guns Sophia made. Apparently they’re strong enough for us to climb up.”

Louis nodded as he took one of Zayn’s markers and drew himself a bike. “All we had to do was swing inside once we were high enough.”

“Hopefully once we get rid of the star we can get out of here.”

“Only one problem,” Zayn said as he drew a bike for Niall. “The star doesn’t have a neck accessory.”

“Neither does the dodecahedron you’re stuck in.” Niall added, glancing between the demon above and around them.

“Then we’re fucked.”

“Come on, lads.” Louis said. “Surely we can think of something.”

Zayn frowned. “The whole time I’ve been here, I’ve only been able to see the barrier of this thing once. I think it was when you killed the demons in the backyard.”

“So we’ve gotta weaken the demons,” Niall concluded.

“There we go,” Louis said. “Now how can we do that? Shoot blessed water at the star?”

Zayn turned to Niall. “How did Harry escape at the hall?”

He pursed his lips in thought, forcing himself to remember what happened. “He screamed for you. Screamed so loud the demon just about exploded.”

Louis grinned and took the cap off of the sharpie again. “So loud obnoxious noise? I think we can manage that.”

**> >>>>**

“We’ve got one shot,” Harry breathed. “You’ve got the whistle?”

Liam looked like he had just seen a ghost, which he had about ten minutes ago. “I thought you had it.”

Harry groaned and slid down the wall. “We’re fucked.”

**> >>>>**

Louis needed one more thing to really put the noise they were making over the top. The star in the sky looked like it was two seconds from falling, and the dodecahedron pulsated to the beat of Zayn’s music. He searched his pockets for the sharpie, feeling his phone, a Swiss Army knife, the remnants of his ripped bag of pocket sage, and a big, strange lump. He scrunched his nose in confusion and pulled out the last object, his heart nearly stopping when he saw what it was.

“Oh no. Oh fucking shit...”

Niall and Zayn turned at the sound of their friend yelling every swear word he knew. “What’s wrong?”

“This!” He held up the small, black object in his hand and waved it around. “This is what’s wrong!”

Niall’s face went paler than usual as he dropped the instruments he was holding. “Please don’t tell me that’s what I think it is.”

“What?” Zayn asked, still banging on his amplified drum set. “A whistle?”

“It’s the goddamn hell hound whistle!”

At Louis’ words, a piercing sound cut through all the noise they had been making. The trio quickly covered their ears and fell to their knees, struggling to keep their eyes open through the intense vibrations. They peered through the slits in their eyes and watched the star rocketing towards the ground, the sound getting louder the closer it came. The demon landed with an explosion, shaking the walls of the dodecahedron and leaving the boys scrambling to their weapons.

The star rose out of a blue haze, illuminating the painted streets. “Couldn’t help but notice you’ve got something of mine.”

Zayn scribbled out a bottle of blessed water and attached it to his gun. “I’ve got something for you all right.”

“Zayn, Zayn, Zayn, Zayn, Zayn,” it tisked. “I thought we were having fun here! You got your own castle and all the freedom you could want. Hell, I even made you a superhero and gave you your snotty little friends to play with.”

“Those were _not_ my friends,” Zayn growled, voice dipping so low it could almost be confused with Harry’s.

“And the Ghost Rider isn’t even a superhero,” Louis corrected.

“Not really the time for this, is it?” Niall asked wearily.

“I’m just saying that if you’re gonna be in someone’s head, at least get your facts straight- Rider’s an antihero.”

“Listen kids, I’m willing to make you a deal.”

“Been there, done that,” Niall said as he raised his flame thrower. “Any last words?”

If the demon had a mouth, it would’ve smirked. “Just keep an open mind.” In a heartbeat, the star launched itself at Louis.

“Lou!” Zayn shot at it but missed. He watched as Louis tried to get away before reloading.

“Give it to me!” Niall yelled.

Louis dodged and rolled right into the side of a building. “What??”

“Give me the whistle!”

“Why don’t you give me a hand first?” He yelled back. “Fuck off!” Louis wrestled with the demon, shoving his hand in his pocket and throwing a handful of what Zayn thought was dust until he heard Louis yell the words “pocket sage”.

Zayn shot at the demon a few more times, crying out in both frustration and an attempt to distract the creature from its goal. Niall continued to ask for the whistle, his voice getting more shrill each time. It took a second for Zayn to realize that even when he hit the demon, nothing was happening. Louis then shoved his hand in his pocket to grab the whistle, but not before Zayn turned to see that Niall’s sclerae were blue.

“Don’t do it, Louis!”

The oldest boy kicked the demon and watched in horror as Zayn closed his eyes and shot Niall. The blond went flying, screaming in pain as he hit the same wall Louis had collided with earlier.

“What the fuck did you do??”

Niall glowed blue before a mist left his body and entered the almost lifeless star. Zayn neither responded nor gave the demon a second to recover before he drew his fist back. Suddenly, his arm was covered in flames, and with one furious motion, punched and set the star ablaze, its bowtie burning the brightest in the mystical pyre.

For all of its climactic, literally world shattering effects, the deadly punch was not the only thing on the group’s mind. Louis, in fact, was exceedingly disinterested in what had just happened, gently holding Niall’s head in his hands. “Niall, hey, can you hear me, mate?”

“The fuck was that?” The younger boy murmured.

“Oh thank god,” Louis gathered him in his arms before turning to Zayn. “Did that bastard possess him?”

Zayn nodded, watching the smoldering remains. The demon’s screams had been drowned out by the music still blaring through the dodecahedron; their ears had all adjusted to the sound by now.

“Piece of shit,” Louis muttered as he helped Niall up. Slowly, they made their way over to where Zayn was standing, noses wrinkling at what little was left of the star. “Wish it would come back so I could kill it.”

“You can kill the next one.” Zayn said as he pointed to the horizon.

A long, spidery crack in the demon’s wall could now be seen, an angry red scar in an otherwise blackened sky. They could see the roof of the manor now, practically inviting them to crash right through. As he slid his arm around Niall’s waist, Zayn looked a little appreciative at the dead demon; the only thing it had succeeded in doing was helping them escape.

Louis grinned and pulled out the hellhound whistle and a sharpie. “I think this calls for a grand entrance.”

**> >>>>**

In their heads, there was really only one way this was going to go. A dozen burning demons behind them, Liam and Harry panted as they threw themselves behind a wall. They were just one corridor away from where the mayor was and, by extension, where all the strongest demons were waiting.

Harry turned his head to look at Liam. “Any other ideas?”

He shook his head, looking up to the ceiling as if another plan would come falling from the sky.

“Was afraid of that.”

“Sorry, mate.” Liam said breathlessly. “Think we’ve used up all our luck.”

“Never had much to begin with, I suppose.”

“Probably not.”

“So,” Harry let the word hang between them for a few moments before continuing. “We’re really gonna do this, aren’t we?”

Liam nodded. “Looks like it.”

“We’re a couple of idiots.”

He smiled weakly. “At least we’re consistent.”

Harry laughed a little, half of it forced out by nerves.

“It was always gonna be us, huh mate?”

Harry nodded, his eyes a little wet. “Worst luck as ever.”

“Who knows,” Liam said as he tipped his head to look at his best friend, “maybe they’ll take your soul and we’ll see you’ve been a mermaid the whole time.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Harry said with a shaky smile. “Mermaids aren’t real.”

Liam didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or vomit at the echoing of his first words to Harry. It was painfully fitting that these might be some of the last words he’d hear Harry say to him, even more so than the horrific pun from before “We’ll be okay.”

“Course we will. We’ve all got each other.” Harry lifted his arm and stuck out his pinky.

Liam nodded, hooking his pinky with Harry’s and trying not to think about what they were leaving behind. He took a small comfort in the fact that the other boys would be safe; they’d have each other once this was over. They’d probably be pissed at Liam and Harry for a while, but Liam hoped that they’d understand. They had to do this.

Nodding at each other, Harry and Liam loaded up their weapons and left their hiding space. In the silence of the manor, there was an urge to turn back and let their guard down- demons would never be so quiet. But these were the smart ones. They were the ones that would win, even if just for a moment.

“No one gets left behind,” Liam muttered as they crept towards the second library.

Harry pulled back from checking around the corner and looked at Liam. “No one’s getting left.”

He nodded; Harry was right. And if he were around to say it later, Liam would use those words to argue with Louis. They weren’t getting left behind- they were choosing to stay.

“Alright. We go in with our weapons holstered, all safety’s off.”

Liam nodded, checking to make sure everything was in order. Their plan wasn’t much of a plan, but it was all they had. Well, that and a little bit of faith.

The pair approached the double doors, each grabbing a handle. Bracing themselves, they pulled the doors open and walked in with their hands in front of them.

At first, it appeared that they had entered the wrong room, but then a stench like the one at Town Hall surrounded them. Walking towards the source, the boys could hear the whispers of the demons echoing against the walls and shelves. Their presence had been detected, but it seemed that their lack of action was working for the moment. The walk to face the mayor and the demon inside her was actually the most uneventful thing Liam and Harry had done in the last month, and that made it all the more disturbing.

“I was wondering when you boys would show up.” The chilling mix of Mayor Anton and the demon’s voices greeted them just before they turned the corner. “Though I did think there would be more.”

“They’re a bit busy at the moment,” Liam replied.

“Besides,” Harry said, “you don’t want them anyway.”

“Ah, but you do. So what is it? Are you going to shoot me with your little guns? Your mothers should have taught you not to play with fire.”

Liam bit back a retort. “We’re here to make a trade.”

“A trade?” The demon barked out a laugh and floated up as the few surrounding demons tittered. “What could you possibly have that I would want?”

“The same thing you wanted back at Town Hall,” Harry answered. “Our souls.”

“I have no use for your souls anymore. They were merely a tool to disband your group. The Creator is giving us all the souls we need.”

“Yeah,” Liam replied. “Until Louis and Niall break him out. Then what have you got?”

“You’re still struggling to break through the force field,” Harry continued. “And human souls are more powerful than creatures’. You get our souls, you get it all. Access to all the secrets of the town, a break in the field, and the other boys are out for the long run.”

“Not good enough,” the octahedron from the forest came forward. “If taking the Creator didn’t slow you brats down, there’s no reason to believe that this will work.”

“It will,” Liam insisted. “Taking two is worse, and with our souls gone, the others have nothing to save.”

The demons murmured amongst themselves, trying hard to find fault with the logic. Anton crossed her arms and looked around, her eyes then locking with Liam’s. She looked frustrated before turning away.

“Donald!” She snapped her fingers, but nothing happened. “ _Donald!_ ”

The room stayed silent.

“Agnus,” Anton barked, “go check on Donald.”

With a crack, one of the demons left. Only a few seconds passed before it came back. “Donald’s dead. Looks like they were telling the truth; the three of them have cracked Susan and are planning their escape.”

The mayor glowed, some of the energy resembling flames, and turned on the boys. “What do you want?”

Harry tried hard to suppress a smile. “Give the mayor her body back and let the boys go. No harm comes to any of them.”

“You’re giving your souls for that?” She laughed, the other demons echoing. An enormous boom from overhead shook the manor and stopped the demons mid-laugh.

“Do we have a deal or not?” Liam snapped. “Cuz if you’re not in, we’re more than willing to kick your ass while you try and get more than a bird out of the town’s shield.”

Harry held his breath, hoping the pressure would work. Anton’s face was blank for a moment before she nodded.

“We’ll shake on it. I saw the work you did on Penny and Boris.”

“Fair enough.”

Three loud booms followed his words; even the demons looked a little uneasy. No one seemed to know where it was coming from. Anton didn’t appear concerned through, gently landing on the ground and making her way over to the boys. When she reached Liam, she held out her hand for him to shake. He nearly jumped back at the realization that it was engulfed in blue flames. Harry looked like he wanted to step between them, but he stood his ground, nodding when Liam looked at him.

“Well? Do you want to save your friends or not?” Anton asked.

Liam took a deep breath and one last look at Harry before taking her hand. Both were now surrounded by the fire, and he felt as if she were grabbing more than just his hand. Time seemed to slow down as the handshake commenced, and for all Liam knew, it had; he wasn’t really sure if they had killed that demon. Their hands went up, and he felt like she was reaching inside him and pulling at the deepest part of his core. As a clammy feeling swept over his body, he couldn’t tell if he was hearing more of those booms or just his heart pounding in his ears. And, just as the handshake was about to be completed, the library exploded.

Well, at least that’s what it looked like to Liam. He vaguely registered Harry diving and rolling with him away from the demons, the latter curling his body around Liam to protect him from the debris. Liam could only hear the muffled sounds of screaming and cursing as Harry cradled his head in his hands. He wondered what Harry was shouting, but then he looked just past the curly head and saw exactly what had crashed through the ceiling.

“Zayn…”

“Zayn?” Harry turned quickly and nearly dropped Liam when he saw their three friends. “Zayn!”

No one appeared to have heard Harry over the cacophony of the three new arrivals shooting flames, gnome bullets, and blessed water from the backs of the massive, hastily drawn creatures upon which they had rode in. Zayn ordered the Camazotz he had just dismounted to go into town and help the citizens fight off the monsters. The large, bat-like creature bared its fangs and screeched in response, the sound pulsating through the room and ruffling the fur that covered its body, before spreading its wings and exiting through the same hole it had entered through. To no surprise, Niall had ridden in on a Paraceratherium, laughing wildly as the extinct, hornless rhinoceros crushed demons under its feet. Louis, who appeared to be the orchestrator of this surprise, looked rather stoic atop his flaming Qilin until he saw Liam and Harry. He quickly hopped off and ran to them, leaving Niall and Zayn to battle alongside his dragon-headed horse.

“What the FUCK WERE YOU TWO THINKING?” He screamed as he pulled them off the floor.

“We were-”

“Shut up!” Louis’ voice cracked as he yanked them into a hug; his hold on them was so intense that there were sure to be bruises later. His head was between theirs, pressed firmly into their shoulders.

“It’s okay, Lou.” Liam said weakly.

That seemed to snap Louis back into action. He pulled back and held Liam by the shoulders, staring straight into his eyes. “Your soul. Where is it?”

Slowly, Liam tapped at his chest.

Louis deflated with relief, and hugged Liam. He then turned to Harry, who gave him a dimpled smile. He threw his arms around his youngest friend. “Don’t you two ever pull that shit again.”

“You can shout all you want later,” Harry replied. “You’ve got a plan?”

Louis pulled away and grinned at them. “You trust me?”

They nodded, prompting Louis to whistle and call his Qilin out of battle. This shifted everyone’s focus, the demons continuously appearing in the room suddenly drawn to the three boys not fighting. Mayor Anton was trapped under a piece of the ceiling that had fallen; the demon inside her hadn’t expected this human limitation to stop it.

“Up you go, Payno.” Louis held on to Liam and, with Harry’s help, got him on top of the mythical creature. “You can work from there. We have to kill all the minor demons; the most we can let live is five.”

Nods all around signaled their departure. They threw themselves into the thick of it all, Harry noticing that there were several different demons here now than there were before. Luckily, he thought, there was a finite number of shapes; at least, he hoped there was. Anton was still struggling under all of the rubble, anger causing her to glow brighter as the fighting continued.

All the books in the library were now past the point of saving. Zayn tried his best to avoid the shelves they hadn’t destroyed, but the others were too busy shooting to realize that they had disintegrated classic collections or drowned important reference books. The boys were cut, bruised, and burned; Niall limped after a blow to the knee nearly got him killed. His Paraceratherium came to his rescue, lifting him to sit on its flat, furry head and shoot from there. The demons left scorch marks on what was left of the walls, their numbers dwindling; only the stronger ones were resilient enough to have survived to this point.

In a split second, the room was covered in a green light, pieces of the ceiling striking the surrounding area and effectively pausing the battle. Mayor Anton lay motionless on the floor, her body no longer glowing. Above her, a red-eyed icosahedron rose into the air, a puka shell necklace with a small engraved stone that read _Shawn_ dangling from where its neck would have been. No one had the energy to laugh at it, and even if they did, they wouldn’t have. Outside of a human body, the head demon was seemingly unstoppable. Louis had one chance to get this right, though, and there were still a few demons that needed to be taken care of.

Louis closed his eyes, trying to gather whatever he had left inside of him to do what he did best. It started soft before becoming louder, his forced sheep-like fake laugh growing until he became overcome with giggles. And suddenly, stress, exhaustion, relief, and fear pushed out a loud genuine laugh, leaving Louis wiping away tears. It was enough to dim Shawn’s glow, which was exactly what Louis wanted.

“What could you _possibly_ be laughing at?? I could kill you in a matter of seconds!”

The boys looked incredibly concerned as Louis continued to cackle. But they stayed still, trusting in whatever half-baked scheme was playing out.

“You-your name! Your name is S-Shawn!” He held his stomach. “And you’re wear-wearing a fucking puka necklace!”

Shawn’s single brow furrowed; it had no idea what the significance of this was.

“You’re tellin’ me th-that we’re all supposed to-to have some douchebag named Shawn with a goddamn puka shell necklace rule our w-world?” Louis was nearly on the the floor now, every bit of emotion from the past month fueling the laughter.

“Is this really what you want to be doing with your dying breath, kiddo? I can and _WILL RIP YOU ACROSS DIMENSIONS_!” The creature seemed to expand into another dimension of space, glowing in anticipation of following through on its threats.

“You look like a fucking football! You expect everyone to be afraid of one stupid demon?”

“Oh-ho-ho, I can assure you I won’t be alone!”

Shawn grew twice its size and seemingly earned its own gravitational pull. Five high-level demons orbited their leader, moving faster and faster until they were completely absorbed. Now that he was taking up most of the room, Shawn glowed six different colors and appeared to have a thousand sides with an eyeball on each one. One giant eye was still red, the color flickering as the demon laughed menacingly. It looked to Louis, expecting to see him trembling in fear, but all Louis did was smirk; he had laughed all the fear out of himself.

“You took your mates and got bigger, so what? You’re still just one demon; this fusion is just a cheap tactic to make all you weak-asses stronger.”

The oversized creature looked between them with its many sided exterior, mild irritation flitting between its eyes as it assessed the tiny “threats”.“You know, it’s been a long time since I’ve had to deal with non-puppety humans. You sure you’re all legally sane?”

“You’re a giant ball,” Liam called. “What are you gonna do, roll over us?”

“You _really_ don’t get it, do you, kid? I’ve been around since before you monkeys figured out how to bang two sticks together to make fire! You’re not even a **CHALLENGE!** ” 

“Six on five? Hardly seems fair,” Louis turned to face the others. “What d’you think, lads?”

“Could be worse,” Harry shrugged.

“Still shit,” Niall called. “But we’ll manage.”

Zayn and Liam nodded in agreement, the corners of their mouths turning up.

“Well, you heard my boys.” Louis said as he faced Shawn again. He shoved one hand in his pocket and reached for his gun with the other. “Let me call time-in, yeah?”

“You’ll be dead before you get the word out,” Shawn growled, but also looked like it was grateful for the time it was being given; fusion seemed to be a new thing for it, so figuring out just how to kill them would take a second or two.

“Lucky for me, I don’t have to say a thing.”

Swiftly, Louis pulled out the hellhound whistle and blew. No sound came out, but instead of awkward nothingness, every glass object in the manor exploded, shattering into hundreds of pieces. Shawn looked unimpressed for a moment; it appeared to be charging up whatever attack it was planning. It wasn’t until a familiar sound shook the house that the atmosphere changed. Niall nearly fell off his Paraceratherium when he heard it, his mind flashing back to the night they ran from this very manor to the bunker.

“The banshee?” Zayn’s voice was almost a whisper, confusion coating his words.

“No,” Liam said. “The hell hounds.”

While still an omen of death, Niall could’ve kissed someone when it set in that the banshee they thought they had heard was actually the cry of a hellhound. The howl wasn’t like a normal dog or wolf, giving it the distorted sound that could easily be mistaken if the listener had never heard one before. And since Niall was not in the business of regularly hanging out with beings from hell, it was completely understandable that he had been wrong. He almost laughed before the realization hit him- the hell hounds were coming.

Shawn seemed to realize what was happening, but couldn’t defuse to save itself. The energy from each of the demons was nearly formed now, ready to kill everyone in the room, but it knew that the hounds would likely get here first.

And they did.

A massive fissure opened in the ground and five hellhounds bounded into the room- originally one for each of the boys’ souls. Louis pulled up his weapon and shouted, “Now!”

Chaos erupted once again, the boys going into battle with the remaining demons, and the hell hounds attacking Shawn. The fusion demon still had power, though, and had dealt with these creatures before. It dodged and shot at the hounds and the boys, conjured up tricks, and slowed time, all in an attempt to at least survive; it would be quite hard to rule the world from a prison in hell. Finally, one of the hounds caught on a demonic component, viciously ripping it from the giant demon Shawn had become. The room pulsated with energy, causing Harry to nearly fall into the path of Liam’s flames before Zayn pulled him out of the way. Harry hissed, grabbing the hand in the splint; it had mostly been protected from the flames, but he could feel a burn somewhere on the very tips of his fingers.

The scream from the first demon died quickly as the hound dove back into the fissure, its angled silhouette dangling from the massive canine’s mouth. Shawn was looking a bit smaller and had lost a fraction of power. Now that six had become five, there were a different set of things it could do, and it had no idea how to do any of them. The hellhounds continued to snap and chase the demon as it blindly shot Shawn’s basic incinerating beams. If the boys hadn’t been so busy killing the other demons, they might have cracked a smile at the fact that it looked like a giant hellish game of fetch.

Zayn killed the final minor demon as it attempted to possess the Qilin. The boys all looked about ready to drop, but Shawn was still there, fighting with as much power as could be expected from a near omnipotent demon. Louis and Harry nodded at each other and ran off to catch its attention. Zayn positioned himself between the two massive creatures his friends were riding, waiting for the optimal opportunity to strike. Louis and Harry were quite the team, darting around Shawn to antagonize him and guide him back to the others. Louis distracted with taunts while Harry caused physical damage to help the hounds. It was actually almost like a game of football, the team of six kicking the demon to the goal.

Nearly there, one of the hellhounds grabbed a demon, ripping it from the group and leaving a broken string of pearls behind as it disappeared back into the earth. Louis and Harry set their guns to the laser setting and simultaneously fired into Shawn’s back. The demon went tumbling across the room, the hounds rolling with it until they came to a stop not too far from the boys.

“You’ll pay for this!” Shawn screeched, beams of light shooting from its faces. “Gravity Falls will bow to me!”

“Not in this lifetime,” Liam responded. “Go!”

Niall, Zayn, and Liam shot flames directly at the puka shell necklace, an extra stream coming from the mouth of the Qilin. Shawn let out a near-deafening scream that shook the boys so much, they were sure they could feel their bones rattle. Still, they kept shooting, knowing that they couldn’t stop until each demon was completely gone. The hell hounds were their last hope, and if they messed this up, Gravity Falls would be doomed.

Slowly, they started to see that Shawn appeared to be melting. Different colors dripped from the shape before hardening to form crude versions of their former components. The hounds grabbed on to each demon, and that’s when the simple math caught up to them- there were six demons, but only five hounds.

“Oh no,” Louis breathed.

“Fuck, fuck…” Harry began to panic, covering his ears to block out all the noise so he could think of a plan.

“What do we do?” Niall yelled over the roar of the flames.

“Keep shooting!” Zayn answered. “We’ll think of something!”

Harry suddenly sprinted away from Louis, heading straight for Shawn.

“Harry, get back here!” Louis screamed and ran after him.

“Stop him!” Liam pleaded. “He’s gonna seal the deal!”

For a brief moment, Louis’ confusion nearly slowed him down. Then it hit him- Shawn was too injured to extract Harry’s soul. Something else would have to come for him. “Harry, no!”

“It’s okay, Louis!”

“No!” Zayn shouted. “We’re a team!”

“No one gets left behind!” Niall followed.

“Harry, you promised!”

Harry came to a stop, looking between his friends. Louis crashed into him, pulling him away from the demon before punching his shoulder. Harry wasn’t given time to react much since Louis started dragging him to where Zayn was.

“The three of us can take one.” Louis said. “Niall and Liam can keep weakening Shawn while we pull out one and burn it.”

Zayn nodded and turned off his flame. He quickly squeezed Harry’s shoulder and pressed his hand against his back as they followed Louis. They found the demon oozing off to the side and braced themselves. The smell of hellhound breath was unbearable, but they grabbed hold of the demon’s body and pulled. Shawn’s screeches went up an octave as another demon was taken back with a hound- only three left.

A few more tugs sent the boys tumbling with the demon. Harry held it down while the other two shot, not stopping until all that was left was a small pile of ashes from whatever deformed neck accessory it had been wearing. The moment it died, Shawn burst into a ball of green flames. The biggest hound sunk its teeth into the leader while its companion carried off the other. Liam and Niall had shut off their guns, all of the boys now watching as the hound dragged Shawn to hell.

“Let me go! I’ll kill you all! You’ll find your families nailed to the ceiling when you wake!” It clawed at the floor with what hands it had left. “I’ll be back for you! Just wait!”

The hound flicked its head, whipping Shawn into the air. The puka shell necklace snapped, burnt pieces scattering the floor. With a howl, the hound signaled that the job was complete and jumped into the fissure, which immediately shot up a wall of fire. A heat they had never before felt filled the room for a few seconds, flames licking the ceiling and curling into the sky through the hole where the boys had entered. As quickly as the fire had appeared, it died, leaving the five of them sweaty and a little singed. A silence settled upon the room, all of them too horrified to do more than breathe.

The dark purple sky began to turn lilac and the air was no longer quite as heavy as it had been. Slowly, they each took their first easy breath since the first cipher had come in. It seemed like forever ago that they were in Portland, mildly curious as to what could possibly be happening at home. If they had known that all of this was going to occur, well, they probably just would have tried to be better prepared.

A groan interrupted their thoughts. Louis, Liam, Zayn, Niall, and Harry turned to look in the direction it had come from, searching wearily for the source. Each was in the middle of praying for it to not be a forgotten demon when a head slowly appeared from behind a broken and toppled bookshelf. Mayor Anton sat up, rubbing her head as she blinked to adjust to the strange lighting of the room. She let out a few different sounds as she surveyed the room, some in pain and others in alarm. Finally, her eyes came to rest on the boys, who looked shocked to see that she was alive.

“What happened?”

**> >>>>**

“Mayor Anton, Nina, and Liz are in the same room. Everything looks good so far.”

“Good,” Liam replied. He closed his eyes, content in hearing Sophia’s voice come through his earpiece.

“Does she remember anything?” Niall asked.

“Just the times when she was lucid enough to get her messages to Nina,” Eleanor said.

“Well, that’s a plus, right?” Zayn asked.

Louis shrugged. “Probably. Most people would be better off not knowing.”

“And you?” Harry asked Sophia. “When are you getting out of there?”

“Another day or so,” she answered. “Not too bothered if I’m honest. Heard the cleanup is gonna be brutal.”

They groaned at the thought; none of them had gone into town yet. They had only called to check on their families before silently taking the long way to Lake Gravity Falls.

“I’m hanging up on you now,” Louis said.

Sophia and Eleanor laughed before the former spoke. “Alright, fine. We’ll talk to you lot later.”

“Will do.”

“Oh, hey,” Eleanor said just before they disconnected. “Happy birthday, Lou.”

The beep that signaled the end of the call filled their ears. None of them were even sure if it was day or night, much less what day it was. They all pulled out their phones on instinct, but the devices were were either dead or broken. Shrugging, the boys pocketed the phones again before turning to face each other. Harry was sitting on the edge of the dock with his feet in the water, occasionally flicking droplets at his friends beside him. Zayn and Niall were on their backs, arms pressed against each other. Louis back was resting against Zayn’s bent knees, his legs across Harry’s lap, and Liam’s head was pillowed on Niall’s thigh with his body at an angle so that he only had to tip his head a little to see the others.

“Happy Birthday, Louis!”

“Big up, mate.”

“You made it!”

“Happy Birthday, mate. Good news is that it can’t be worse than the days we’ve been having.”

Louis shook his head and suppressed a fond smile. “Cheers, lads. So, what’d you get me?”

A beat of silence was followed by all but Louis laughing. He pouted and dug his heel into Harry’s thigh.

“I’m serious,” he said, clearly not.

“What? Saving the town and the world not good enough for you?”

The oldest boy scoffed. “Not since I had to do it all on me own.”

They all laughed again, this time joined by Louis. The quintet lapsed into silence, each of them in their own thoughts but very much aware of the others. Louis stared at them for a few seconds each, thinking of every moment one of them was nearly lost. They had made it, together, just like they were meant to. He smiled and closed his eyes for a moment, feeling the first rays of sunlight peek through the hazy sky. Louis watched the sky still slowly clearing before looking at his boys again. Saving the world was a pretty good present, he supposed, but having them was better.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! You can find me on tumblr [here](http://ot5hugs.tumblr.com) if you'd like to talk. And in case anyone hasn't seen the beauty of Niall's art, you can see it [here](http://38.media.tumblr.com/a2e5cd0237359299fd2dd7f54d9df8e1/tumblr_inline_nkaqp3pHyI1qeklc2.png).


End file.
